Fated and Feathered
by AllISeeAreStars
Summary: After the death of her flock, Angel grew up. But she never grew out of wanting to save the world. Now she's starting the BAU and meeting a new family, something she hasn't had in a very long time.
1. Angel

**A/N: Hey guys, so I'm just going to give you a quick run down of Angel as a character and her gifts for those of you who haven't read the books. For those of you who HAVE, yes. I kind of played her gifts down. She's borderline evil in the later books. Maybe evil isn't the right word, but very manipulative. This is after she's grown up obviously. Angel has the ability to read minds and influence, but in mine she doesn't really do the latter. She has pure white wings that she can fly with, blonde hair, she's ridiculously adorable, and kind of Dumbledore-ish in the books. She can also breathe under water. I think that's the extent of what I'm going to give her and I'm focusing on Angel in the first few books rather than the last when you aren't sure who's side she's on. Let me know if you have any questions or if I didn't explain enough.**

Chapter one: Angel

"Hey, wait!" Angel stuck her arm out to stop the doors from closing and let the man, who looked a bit young, in with her.

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome. What floor?"

"Oh, uh, six, please."

She pressed the number and smiled. "Same as me. I'm Angel Ride."

"Spencer Reid."

"Are you, by any chance on the Behavioral Analysis Unit?" He was, she could tell from his thoughts. He also hadn't had his coffee yet, it spilled on the metro, and he thought she was pretty.

"Yes, I am. Are you here with a case?"

"Actually, today's my first day on the BAU. I met with Agent Hotchner yesterday."

Now he was wondering why he didn't know ahead of time that they were getting a new teammate. This was usually the sort of thing that spread rumors weeks ahead of time. The elevator dingedat the arrival of their destination. He graciously stretched out an arm for her to go first.

 _She walks like she's dancing. Like the floor is a stage of air._ Then Spencer stopped mid-step, making Angel turn around too- her long, blonde hair in a long, blonde braid over her shoulder and her royal blue dress caught in a twirl of her movement; he had never had such poetic thoughts.

"Are you okay?" She asked with a smile at his thoughts.

"Oh, um, yeah. Sorry. Here, I'll show you to your desk."

He lead the way and she followed closely in her graceful steps, bouncing on the balls of her feet with each one. Spencer noticed, meaning Angel noticed through him, that as they moved through the bullpen people stopped and looked up from whatever they were looking at to watch her closely. She was different.

Her desk was on the other side of Morgan's, across from his. The first thing she did was sit in her chair and twirl around in it with a manic grin. "This is perfect, Spencer, thank you."

"Well, you can put up pictures or a potted plant or something. Most people do."

"Do you?"

He shrugged. "No. I don't care about anything enough to bring it to work and keep it there. I don't see the point."

"It's to remind us of all the wonderful things that keep us going in the face of the things that leave most with horrible nightmares."

"Some of us _do_ get nightmares."

"But they pass." She stood from the chair and started pulling things from her bag. Colorful post it note pads, pens and sharpies of the rainbow, and one picture frame.

"Who are they?" He asked her.

Angel kept it. After all these years, she kept the only picture that had ever been taken of the entire family. She pointed to each person with a small smile that took her years to recover. She remembered them all as though it had only been yesterday.

"That's Max, she was the oldest. I was always her favorite, but everyone pretended like we didn't know." He smiled. "That's Dylan and Fang. They fought over Max like you wouldn't believe. But she was always meant for Fang. Then there was Iggy and Ella. Ella was Max's sister. Iggy was blind, but a great cook. They were sickeningly adorable together. She was so in love with him from the moment they met. Nudge, she could talk. We called her the Nudge Channel. All Nudge. All the time."

Here she chuckled slightly. "Then, there was Gazzy. He did amazing impressions. He was my brother. There's Ella and Max's mom, Dr. Martinez. She was a veterinarian. Jeb-" The words stumbled across her tongue. "He was our father, all of us, in a way. Total and Akila are the dogs. They're still with me. This one, that was me."

 _She was so little. Only what, five? Six?_

"Seven," she answered aloud. He looked startled. She glanced over to him and shrugged apologetically. "You're a loud thinker."

He frowned and looked down at his feet. Then he was suddenly holding a cup of coffee made just the way he liked, which if you asked anyone else was with way too much sugar. He looked over at Morgan gratefully and Angel watched him, listening in. He cared very much for this Agent Morgan. They were very close.

"Hey! Pretty Boy! Who's your girlfriend?"

Angel smiled. Spencer's care for Morgan as his brother was mutual and she could feel the sincerity in his mind that he just wanted Spencer to be happy.

"Morgan, this is Agent Ride. She's new to the BAU. Angel, this is Derek Morgan."

She held her hand out for him to shake and he took it, not too hard, but firmly in a confident way. "Angel Ride? That's a heck of a name."

"As opposed to Derek Morgan which mean a sea-born ruler? That's rather presumptuous, don't you think?"

He laughed. "I like her, Reid. Snatch her up before someone else does."

 _Does he have to make jokes like that? Especially in front of her? Now she's going to think I'm only being nice to her because I like her._

Angel smiled serenely and took the coffee out of Morgan's hands, effectively stealing it with a sip from it. Morgan looked heartbroken as another woman came over to the desk on the other side of Spencer's.

"What's going on?"

"Angel stole Morgan's coffee," Spencer said with a chuckle.

Angel held her hand out, swerving the cup away from Morgan trying to take it back. The woman took it, wondering to herself with a anxious bite of bitterness on whether or not this was someone she just didn't know because she hadn't been here long. If this was another part of the family she had to fight to be a part of.

"Hi, Emily Prentiss."

"Angel Ride."

"That's an interesting name-"

"Don't," Morgan interrupted. "She'll own the name thing."

Emily held her hands up in surrender. "Okay."

"Today's my first day," Angel reassured her.

Her face brightened. "Oh! Well, welcome."

"Guys, we have a case."

Angel glanced up with the rest to a blonde making her way with a stack of folders to a conference room. Spencer and Morgan brought her to the room where she smiled at the round table. Max wasn't into telling them the usual normal stories most children were told, but Jeb told them stories. She loved stories about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

"Don't sit down," Hotch said, coming into the room. "They want us in Olympia, WA immediately. You'll all have to be briefed on the jet. Angel, you have your go-bag?"

The blonde began passing around files and Angel nodded as they walked back out of the room. An older gentleman gave her a strange look and held his hand out to shake and she took it.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm Dave Rossi."

"Angel Ride. It's a pleasure."

"Right, Agent Ride is our newest team member. She came very highly recommended."

"I didn't know we were looking." Rossi commented.

Hotch didn't answer aloud, but Angel heard the thought. _She was too good to pass up. Haven't seen credentials that impressive since Reid._ She smiled to herself and picked up the metallic pink luggage bag from underneath her desk.

"Where's your coffee?" She heard Rossi ask.

"I don't want to talk about it."

The victims were Ella Moreine age 20, Harley Williams age 23, Lily Opine age 22, and Tessa Crowley age 25. Four victims in four weeks all with signs of sexual abuse. Now, Kalie Teran was missing. She was 19. They all had blonde hair and blue eyes. Angel could hear the thoughts around her all shift to she and JJ, though mostly Angel as she was closer to the victims' ages.

"These are track marks," she said on the jet, one leg crossed over the other and her foot shaking. She hated being in such air crafts. She'd rather fly herself. She'd definitely get there faster. She could feel her wings tingle in frustration, but she held back the urge to get up and pace. "The unsub poisoned them. Injection. Do we know what they used?"

"There were traces of strychnine found in their veins."

She nodded. "Painful. _The_ most painful. They wanted them to suffer."

"In the past, strychnine was available in a pill form and was used to treat many human ailments, but today, strychnine is used primarily as a pesticide, particularly to kill rats."

She looked up at Spencer in surprise, not at what he said, but the endless list of other facts he was thinking about as soon as the poison was named. He looked over, saw her watching him, and his mind went blank. Morgan thought this amusing. JJ thought it cute.

"Right," Hotch said. "So we may be looking at someone incapable of killing them physically."

"But he still has to get these women to the next location. He's perceived as nonthreatening."

"What were they all doing before they were abducted?"

Emily flipped a page. "It seems they were all heading to a club with friends, never came home. Taken on Fridays."

"Then he had to be handsome," JJ said under her breath. "Not much else could separate the pack."

"Unless they knew him. If he was an ex or something that wanted to talk."

"No," Angel said. "If they were in a group she wouldn't have gone with him. Especially if he's a recent ex. She would thrive on her friends seeing that he was desperate to still speak to her. Not an ex."

Spencer, Hotch, and Rossi stared at her from across and beside her.

 _Was she a mean girl?_

 _That's something._

 _She's right._

"What's wrong?"

"Just, listening."

When they landed, They drove over to the local sheriff department and met with the sheriff, Mortimer Morales.

"Sheriff Morales? I'm Agent Jennifer Jareau, the communications liaison for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. We spoke on the phone?"

"Right, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you guys here."

Hotch shook the man's hand next. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, SSA's Derek Morgan, David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Angel Ride, and Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Good to meet you and again, I am so glad that you're here. I don't know what to. We don't have any leads."

"Well, we'll see what we can do. Is there an office we can work in?"

"Right this way, we have a board and some markers, our case files, etc. Is there anything else I can get you guys?"

Angel frowned at an internal war waging in his mind and moved up a little bit to shake his hand. "Hi, I'm Angel. Kalie is your niece, isn't she?"

"Yes. She is. Thank you for not saying _was_."

"We're going to find her," she promised.

He nodded and led them to an office, presumably his own, where he had cleared the furniture out aside from a table, a few chairs, and the board. He had decided to let them use his own office, rather than kicking someone else out of theirs. He and his niece were very close.

"That was well handled," Emily told her. Angel thanked her.

"I think, Reid, you stay here and see if you can find any other connection between the victims other than physical attributes. JJ, you and Rossi go look at the bodies, see if there is anything else we can learn from them. Prentiss, Morgan, you two go to the dumpsite. Angel, you and I will be talking to the family members."

He wanted to see how she worked. He was currently thinking about all of the different strategies he had seen others use in talking to the families and suspects.

"How did you know she was his niece?" Hotch asked. "That was no where in the files."

"He was personally invested in one of the victims, and the eagerness and worry as opposed to aggression meant that she was the latest. Their last names are different so I just sort of guessed."

She couldn't very well tell him she read his mind. She had had to learn how to prove the truth and push people in the right direction. He looked impressed as they usually did.

"First is Ella Moreine's parents," he told her.

"Right, how do you want to play this?"

"Just be as sympathetic as you can and see what you can find out. You'll be leading."

Angel nodded and opened the door to the conference room, outstretching her hand. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Moreine. I'm Agent Ride with the FBI, this is SSA Hotchner. We were wanting to ask you some questions about your daughter, Ella."

"Are there any suspects?" The father asked.

"As of this moment we are still looking, but I can tell you that any information would be helpful at this stage. What can you tell me about Ella's friends? Was she an outgoing person?"

The father, Richard, shook his head. "She kept to herself mostly, had a few friends that she'd had for years. Julie Ernest, Felicity Jackson, and Ryan Hunter."

"Ryan her boyfriend?" Hotch asked.

"Ryan's a girl," Richard told them.

" _Did_ she have a boyfriend?" Angel rephrased.

Richard answered with absolute certainty. "No. Ella was focusing on school."

He wanted to believe that wholeheartedly. He was possessive. There was a flair of something in the mother's mind and Angel looked over to her. "Mrs. Moreine?"

The woman looked over at her husband anxiously. "She-she met someone online. Said it was getting serious and how he was helping her overcome her anxiety."

"And you didn't tell me?" Richard growled at her. Angel flinched at the memories he was experiencing. Memories of fights he and the wife had, bruises she had afterwards, once when Ella had to be sent to the ER with a broken arm where he had wretched it behind her. She took deep breath through the nose and slowly out through the mouth.

"Did she mention a website? Or a username perhaps?"

"No, I-I don't remember. It had something to do with a moon or something. Astronomy. She referred to him as Grant."

Angel tried to smile reassuringly and laid a hand on the woman's shaking clasped hands. "I can't tell you how much that helps us, thank you."

"No," the father insisted. "She'd have told me."

More memories of late nights, sneaking into her room. If you cry or tell Mommy, she won't love you anymore. Not an uncommon thing for rapists to say. Angel flinched violently and pushed hard against his mind.

"Aah!"

"Wh-what's wrong?" The mother asked him worriedly, like a frail bird.

He glared at her. "Nothing, I think we're done here."

He grabbed her arm fairly harshly and they left. Angel stared after them.

"Angel?"

"Your tech analyst, Garcia? Call her. See if the other victims also come from abusive homes. Emergency trips, child protective services, domestic violence."

"Do you think he also sexually assaulted her."

"Yes I do. I also think that if the victims were all sexually assaulted or from abusive homes then it might be something the unsub shares with them."

"That's excellent," he said as they entered the sheriff's office. JJ and Rossi came in.

"The unsub poisoned them, and then sexually assaulted them with a foreign object, and then smothered. The unsub knew they were about to die, but hurried it along."

"Do you think the unsub thought it was just taking too long?"

Spencer stepped away from his board. "On the contrary, the asphyxiation might be a key point in finding the unsub."

"He's definitely not concerned with being caught," Emily said. "The bodies were just thrown into the garbage in a well tracked alley."

Hotch pulled his phone out and dialed a number.

"You've reached Penelope Garcia in the FBI's Office of Supreme Genius."

Hotch motioned for Angel to take the phone and she did. "Hi, can you track to see if any or all of the victims have had questionable visits to the hospital or maybe child protective services coming to their house? Anything suggesting an abusive home."

"Okay, who is this questioning my genius? I have- oh dear. I have a hospital record for a broken arm when Ella was 15. It lead to a three day investigation, but nothing came out of it. Harley was taken from her home at the age of ten for rape. Her father died in a federal prison. Lily had police called to her home for a domestic disturbance. Tessa, same story. Bruises, broken bones, failed child services visits."

"What about Kalie?" Emily asked in a whisper.

"Nothing, but it seems like there are a lot of speculation about how close the sheriff is with his niece. If nothing was going on, people sure thought it was."

Spencer frowned, "So, the unsub obviously shares a similar past with these victims."

"What if-" Spencer stopped and looked towards Angel. "I'm... sorry... to interrupt, but what if the unsub is female? It could explain the poisoning. If she was also abused as a child then she may be doing to them what was done to her. They're all blonde in the same general age group, what if she is too?"

"Soo..." the voice on the phone said. "We're looking for a blonde female with blue eyes, approximately between the ages of 20 and 25 with a history of abuse? I will get back to you."

"And something happened," Rossi said. "Something recent happened that made her relive her past and start this. Within the last two months."

"You got it."

* * *

Hotch, Angel, and Spencer went to Harley William's house to speak with her adoptive parents with whom she still lived while she went to college. That was another connection. All of the victims lived with their parents.

"We're very sorry for your loss, Mr. and Mrs. Williams." Hotch said.

The mother sniffed and nodded. "Thank you."

"Was Harley seeing anyone? Anyone new entering her life?" Angel asked.

The father nodded. "She was telling us about someone she met online. They were ready to meet in person, but we told her we didn't think she should. It caused quite the argument."

"Would you mind if we looked at her computer?" Spencer asked.

"Not at all," the mother pointed to the room, "please. Anything to find the man who did this."

Angel smiled gratefully. "Now, how old was Harley when you adopted her?"

"She was eleven. We adopted her not long after she was taken from her real parents. They were our neighbors and we just adored Harley."

They did, they were just distraught and Angel hated listening to their thoughts. She and Spencer went into the room and she sat down at the computer. Sometimes she had a knack for passwords, sometimes she didn't. That was always Nudge's thing. Or Iggy if he could hear it being typed. She frowned and looked down at the keyboard. There were permanent shiny marks on the keys she used the most; A, G, N, R, T. GRANT. The name Ella Moreine mentioned to her mother. She would bet they were talking to the same person online and meeting them on the Friday they were taken. And obviously the unsub was good if they were already a password.

The website was pulled up. Experience Project. Angel looked through messages and Spencer stopped her at one.

"You said moon, right? Ganymede is the largest of Jupiter's moons and the third largest thing in our solar system. It's also the assumed name of a female character who dressed up as a man in Shakespeare's _As You Like_ It."

"You're amazing," she said, clicking on it.

She could feel Spencer's breath on the back of her neck as she read the last few posts. She had agreed to meet him that Friday for a date. The park. Public enough the victim would feel comfortable meeting someone they didn't know, but private enough still it shouldn't be too difficult to get them away. Especially if the unsub let them think they'd been stood up and then showed up with sympathy. Women didn't often think of the possibility that other women would hurt them.

"I'll call Garcia," Spencer said, "see if she can trace the I.P. address."

"I'll tell Hotch."

* * *

"Harley was going on a date with someone named Grant and Ganymede too," Hotch told the rest of the team when they went back to the office.

Morgan and Emily had just come back from Lily Opine's home. "So did Lily. The park."

"Same as Harley and I'll bet Ella. We should ask Sheriff Morales."

"Ask me what?"

Hotch turned around and asked the man. "Was Kalie talking to anyone online?"

He frowned. "Yeah, seemed a nice kid. Some new blog she found."

"Did she have plans to meet him?"

"At some point, but I don't think they had made any plans." They all looked at each other. "Why? What's going on?"

"That's our unsub."

Angel placed a comforting hand on his arm and Hotch looked to the others. "I think we're ready to give our profile."

* * *

"We're looking for a Caucasian female in her early to mid-twenties."

"We think she'll be blonde with blue eyes. She will have an abusive background, a father who sent her to a hospital or molested her."

"She'll obsess over this, seek men out but when they get too close she'll run away from them. She'll be terribly insecure on the outside but when cornered she'll lash out. This is a girl who will most likely commit suicide by cop, so be careful."

"Now, we need to keep this out of the press," JJ insisted. "If she sees this it may cause her to devolve and start killing randomly and without hesitation."

Angel's phone rang and she looked down with a frown. It wasn't a number she recognized. She picked it up as she walked toward an officer in the back, leaving so he could tell his fiance the profile, who was a reporter.

"Ride, please hold on for just one minute. Officer Hull?"

The young man stopped, barely old enough to drink. "Yes?"

"Your fiance, Ashley, she was friends with one of the victims right?"

"Yeah, Tessa was supposed to be her Maid of Honor."

Angel nodded sympathetically. "I understand the pain, and I'm sorry for her loss, but if you and she report anything that happened here today, if I hear even a whisper, I will arrest you so for obstruction of justice you won't have time to even say the word profile. Please, have a nice day."

It wasn't often she channeled her inner Max, well, actually it was. It was part of why she joined the FBI. She held the phone up to her ear. "Hello, I'm sorry about that. To whom am I speaking?"

"You. Are. Awesome. Check it, so I have nothing on the username Doc called me about, but I do have six names that I got when looking for people like our victims. Can you give me something to cross reference?"

"Actually, just list the names."

"Okay, we have; Nadia Kyle, Sarah Foley, Rosalind West-"

"Her, Rosalind."

"Are-are you sure?"

Angel went into the sheriff's office and put her on speaker for the others. "Rosalind was from a Shakespeare play-"

" _As You Like It_ ," Spencer said. "She pretended to be a man and named herself Ganymede like our username."

"Okay, well she was taken from her father at the age of sixteen after a miscarriage where he was the father. There were insinuations before that that he was molesting her, but nothing was ever proven. Let's see- oh. Well there's our stresser."

"What?"

"Her father, Grant, died early last month."

"Right before the killings started."

"Alright, Baby Girl, we need an address."

* * *

"Are you nervous?" Spencer asked her, thinking to himself that they wouldn't have solved this yet if it weren't for her.

"No."

He was nervous his first case, and the second, and the third. He was nervous anytime he thought he had to shoot an unsub. Or an unsub was going to shoot him. He was nervous when he thought his family, his team, might be in danger. Like now.

"Angel, I want you going in there with Reid and Morgan. Seeing you might make her calm down enough to cooperate."

She nodded. JJ was apparently pregnant. She'd been thinking about it and so had everyone else. Spencer had been reading things about pregnancy in case he needed to know for her. He could probably deliver one if necessary.

Angel pulled her wings closer underneath her clothes and felt calmer. She went behind Morgan, in front of Spencer, with Emily behind him and Rossi and Hotch ready to come in.

"Rosalind?" She called down into the basement, stepping down them in front of Morgan. It looked awful. Kalie was on a bed, huddled against the wall with her hand chained to the bed. Across from her was a video of Rosalind doing terrible things to her other victims. Morgan turned it off and Angel approached Kaylie carefully.

"Don't come closer," a voice said. Angel turned to an open door and where Rosalind was standing with a gun. Morgan and Spencer trained theirs on her, but hers was on Angel.

Angel set her gun down. "Hi. I'm Angel. I know why you chose Ganymede as a user. It's fairly clever. And your fathers name as yours? Symbolic. But he's dead now, Rosalind. He can't hurt you again."

"No, he'll always be here."

"Rosalind, please, Kalie has does nothing to you. She's never been in a position like you. She- look at her. She's scared, Rosalind. Just like you were."

"He-he used to shove my face in a pillow to make me stop crying."

"I know, but you don't have to relive it through them."

"He'd video tape it and make me watch it later. He'd bring his friends-" her voice broke off and faded.

"Put the gun down," Morgan said.

She shook her head. "I-I can't. I was pregnant. And- even after everything- I loved that baby. And then he was gone. He died, in his sleep and peacefully. I still have nightmares and can't even look at myself. Why does, why does _he_ get to move on?"

"It isn't right," Angel said, "but neither is what you're doing. You have to think about this. We can get you help. Please, put the gun down."

"Did you know the miscarriage was so brutal I will never be able to have children again?"

"Rosalind, please, look at her. She's scared. Of you. I know you don't want to make anyone feel that helpless feeling you had. Put the gun down."

She wasn't going to. Angel heard and saw what the scene was about to be and pushed, making Rosalind set it down slowly and put her hands up so Angel could arrest her.

* * *

"How did you get her to surrender?" Dave Rossi asked her on the jet. "Our profile said suicide by cop."

"I don't know," she lied as she fidgeted. She hated planes. "She just did."

Hotch frowned. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah. I just- I don't like planes. Too confining."

"I think that was the fastest we've ever solved a case," Emily said, playing poker with Spencer and losing. She sighed and set her cards down. "I quit. Find someone else- Angel. Do you play poker?"

"I do, but I've never lost so no one ever wants to play."

Morgan perked up at the opportunity that Spencer might lose. "No, really. You should play Reid. He's from Las Vegas. You'll be even."

"I don't know," she said.

"Come on," Spencer said. "Come play."

She searched his face and smiled, standing up to sit across from him. "If you all insist."

"Oh, trust me," Rossi said, moving a book out of her way. "We do. I have to see this."

Hotch smirked from his spot beside Spencer, flipping through his paperwork. Morgan nudged Emily, "Ten bucks she wins."

She chuckled. "No way, I'll take that bet. Spencer never loses."

"He lost to you once," JJ said, moving over to watch.

"I think she'll beat him," Hotch says.

"You've seen her file," Rossi reminds him. "We haven't."

Spencer dealt. Angel smiled. Spencer picked his own cards up. So did she. She switched two cards. He switched three. Then he smiled. Next round. Then the next. She sighed.

"I will put in four more pretzels," he said with a barely contained smirk.

She sighed again. "I will see your four and raise you another three."

Angel pushed seven peanuts into the pile. He frowned slightly and put in three pretzels. Then he set his cards down. Straight flush. Everyone groaned and threw their hands up except Spencer and Emily, who held her hand out for the ten bucks Morgan took out of his wallet. Hotch awaited for his reaction as Angel set her own hand down.

"Actually," she interrupted. "I believe my royal flush beats your hand, but it's been a while since I've played. I could be wrong."

Hotch laughed. Actually laughed.

 **A/N: Hope you guys liked it, the first chapter of the Spencer/Hermione story will be up in a few and I'm just going to stop making promises about not starting new stories- yeah? Don't worry, I haven't forgotten any of the open ones I promise. I just write where my inspiration hits. Have any of you watched Leverage the TV show? I may add that too just because I love it. Maybe Eliot and Angel knew each other. Or Angel and Parker were in foster care together. Tell what you think in the towel section down below. Love always, Skye.**


	2. Higher Power

Chapter two: Higher Power

"Why is it, I bring you your on coffee and you still steal mine?" Morgan complained.

Angel smiled mischievously. "Why do you always let me?"

"Are you guys still arguing about coffee?" Emily asked, grabbing her own from the tray Morgan always brought in. "What's it been, a month since Angel got here and you've been constant about it?"

"It's not my fault he likes it the same way," Angel said.

Spencer took his and chugged half of it, wincing at the burn and looking exhausted with dark bags under her eyes. "Actually, he's ordered various coffees, but you always seem to know which he had intended for him."

"I'm gifted," she said, sipping the beverage. "How is it that you can drink it without waiting for it to cool down?"

"He has asbestos mouth?" Emily suggested with a shrug.

"Actually the first recorded use of the word was in 1607 from Middle English, _albeston_ was a mineral supposed to be inextinguishable once set on fire. This was from the Middle French word, _abeston_ , which was derived from Medieval Latin-"

"We usually cut him off when he starts talking about Medieval Latin," Morgan said.

"I think it's cute," she insisted, starting her paperwork. "It's much better than passively bring the conversation around to one's good looks."

"Ooh," Emily laughed. "She has your number."

Morgan chuckled. " _But_ , she did admit that I look good."

Emily rolled her eyes and Angel pulled her hair back to start her work. She liked the paperwork, found it calming. She loved helping people on cases. She liked her new friends. She liked Spencer.

"Hey, guys, we, um, got a case." JJ stood at the stairs and fiddled with the edge of her nails before looking up. It was a case of suicides and she wasn't sure if they would take it, but there was something about this case that made her feel like they needed to. Angel agreed if only because JJ felt this strongly about it.

"Alright," Morgan said. "Is Hotch meeting us in the conference room?"

"Rossi is, but Hotch is taking some time off to see Jack. He'll join us when he can."

Spencer was suspicious, but he knew JJ better than anyone. They took their seats and JJ started the slide. "Three months ago there was a fire in the Shadyside Rec Center and fourteen children were killed."

"I remember that," Morgan said.

"What does that have to do with us?"

"Over the last three months, there have been five suicides. All of them lost a child in the fire. The last one was Paul Baleman. He was found electrocuted in his bathtub last night. I've received a request for our help."

"Why do they need our help? They're suicides."

"All the suicides were within two weeks of each other," Spencer said.

Angel shrugged. "It could be some sort of pattern."

"Detective Ronnie Baleman, Pittsburgh, P.D. thinks that something's going on."

"Well, of course he does," Morgan said skeptically.

Emily was looking at the papers. "Why do you say that?"

"He related to that man, right?" Rossi asked.

JJ nodded. "His brother."

Morgan was even more positive this time. "A cop who doesn't believe his brother committed suicide. Come on, next case."

"Now wait a minute," Emily said. "Five suicides in the same neighborhood within months? That's a serious spike."

"Suicides don't spike after a tragedy," Rossi said.

Spencer agreed. "Quite the opposite, actually. Following World War I and II, right after Kennedy was shot, and following 9/11, suicides plummeted. Within a society, external threats usually create group integrations."

"People come together."

Rossi was thinking about Hotch and Angel felt for the man, losing his wife because of his job and afraid of losing his son in that process. Morgan still wasn't convinced and Angel didn't understand why.

"So if there's reason for doubt, which there obviously is, don't those families left behind have a right to know?"

"Yes, they do," Rossi said, rejoining the conversation.

Morgan sighed. "Well sure they deserve to know, but let someone else tell them, like social services."

"Contact Detective Baleman. Let him know we're coming."

*

"Morgan," Angel said on the jet as she sat beside him. "Why are you so against this?"

"I just think we're going to be looking for something that isn't going to be there. Hotch would never have taken this case, and I say case in the loosest of terms."

She frowned. "Jay feels very strongly about this case," she whispered. "Shouldn't we at least check it out and be able to say with absolute certainty that there's nothing to it? Then we can say that we looked instead of blowing her off."

"Fact one," Rossi said. "We have no files, and seemingly, no case."

"One fire, fourteen deaths, five suicides."

JJ said, "All deaths are connected to the fire."

"And all deaths are exactly two weeks apart."

Angel squeezed Morgan's knee. "Come on, Derek. You can't tell me that doesn't feel a lot like a pattern."

"And a timeline," Emily chipped in.

He looked around at them, all looking back. "A lot of people lost their kids in that fire. That's a whole world of grief and for a few... suicide's their only way out."

"Or someone decided it was."

"And made it look this way?"

"What if they have?"

"Then we're looking for one very smart unsub."

Emily nodded. "Who's targeting people in grief."

Rossi moved his hand in a winding pattern Max used to make in hopes of making Nudge get to her point. "And that would make his what?"

"Someone who thinks they're putting them out of their misery."

"An angel of death," Spencer said.

*

A balding man came to greet them at the station entrance and immediately, Angel saw the looks he got.

"Agent Jareau?" He asked. "I'm Detective Ronnie Bateman."

"Hi. This is SSA Rossi, SSA's Morgan, Prentiss, Ride, and Dr. Reid."

He smiled almost in relief. "Thank you, all of you, for coming."

"Well your colleagues don't look all that happy to see us," Morgan pointed out.

Angel nudged him as the detective answered. "They didn't just lose a brother."

Spencer dove in. "I'd like to get started with all the files. We're gonna build what we call psychological autopsies to determine whether the victims killed themselves."

"Everything's in those boxes," he said, pointing behind him.

"We'd also like to take a look at your brother's house," JJ told him.

"I'll take you there."

Rossi stopped him. "I think it's better if you stay here."

"It's my case," he argued, "I brought you here."

Angel almost sighed before Morgan spoke. "Technically, there is no case. And if there was, you wouldn't be on it."

"We need to process the scene without bias," Emily said to overlap the end of Morgan.

"I could use your help with these files," Spencer said. "It looks like there's quite a few."

Rossi nodded to the detective. "That's a good idea. Angel, JJ, you two should probably stay to help too."

He, Emily, and Morgan left and Angel and JJ moved over to the table over thrown by papers with Spencer and Baleman. "My brother kept a journal. I found this on the desk in his bedroom. Read the last page. They're not the words of a suicidal man."

"You seem pretty sure that an unsub exists," JJ said, looking over Spencer's shoulder.

"So are you," he pointed out. "You're here, aren't you?"

Angel pulled her I-Pod out of her pocket and pulled a set of headphones out of her purse. "Well, let's get down to it, shall we?"

The headphones and music kept her focused on the case as opposed to distracted by others thoughts. Baleman looked at them with a frown as if wondering how she expected to work like that and if she was even taking it seriously. Actually, that's exactly what he was thinking. She hadn't turned the music on yet.

"She does her best work with music," Spencer said.

Baleman still looked unsure, but less so as they each picked up a file and left Spencer to the journal.

*

"Well, if these autopsies prove they weren't suicides, then I need to inform the media right away."

"I would err on the side of caution," JJ said, looking down at a picture.

"What?" He asked. "People need to know."

Angel stepped in, "And they will, as soon as we have absolute proof."

"I think the town's been through enough already, don't you?"

"Also keep in mind that if these cases are related, this unsub's probably already aware that we're on to him."

Baleman insisted. "But the community needs to know if there's a serial killer in its midst."

"And they will," JJ said again. "As soon as we have proof."

"Even if the proof means another body." He said unhappily before leaving the room.

JJ groaned and rubbed her face. "He's right, you know."

"He's also personally motivated, though," Spencer replied, "which means he's likely to react irrationally."

"If this turns out to be the work of a serial killed, the whole town will too."

*

Angel was startled when Spencer slightly shook her arm to get her attention. "What's wrong?" she asked, taking her headphones off without pausing the music turned as loud as it could go.

"They found another body," he told her. She sighed. "Is that Yiruma?"

"River Flows In You," she said. It was one of her favorites. She stood to go to the scene with JJ and Spencer.

"I prefer Michele McLaughlin."

"I love her."

"Who?" JJ asked.

When they arrived, Morgan and the others were already there- Emily and Morgan arguing quietly on the steps about whether or not it was a suicide.

"I don't know," Angel said. "I don't think she would have left her baby in his high chair in the next room with the radio on."

"Thank you," Emily said.

Spencer followed Angel into the house. There was no suicide note, leading Spencer to come to the conclusion of them all knowing the unsub and letting them in of their own accord. Emily had Garcia looking for something he could have drugged them with and then Angel, Spencer, and JJ were back to the books and files.

"These are some samples from Diedre Nollard, the jumper. See, we have an insurance form, a letter she wrote to her neighbor a month ago, a birthday card she wrote to her husband a week ago, and her suicide note found on her body."

"The suicide note matches right?" Baleman asked.

"It's definitely by her own hand, but she's professing regret. Look. But the handwriting, the forensic analysis is saying the exact opposite."

"What do you mean?"

"Um... well, you see how the handwriting slants uphill? It's a clear sign of optimism. The same with how the spacing is so consistent. And these long t-bars- those indicate an enthusiastic person."

Baleman sighed and placed his hands on his hips, waving with one hand. "Not someone who would take a swan dive off a five story walkup."

"Look, even if we had alerted the media-" JJ started.

Baleman interrupted. "Now we'll never know. Like I said, that's on me. But, hey, now we have the proof that these aren't suicides. Those notes, were they coerced?"

"If you were to force someone to write their own suicide note," Angel said, "these are words you generally wouldn't use."

"I'll take that as a no."

"And my brother's journal?"

"I haven't- it's extensive. I haven't-"

"Another no." Baleman set the book down. "Can we inform the media now?"

JJ was getting frustrated with this guy, and to be honest so was Angel. She understood that he wanted justice for his brother, but he needed to let them do their jobs. He was too close.

"I have," JJ told him.

There was a knock and Morgan told them he needed them. Hotch had just arrived and was pacing outside along the road verge.

"What have we got?" He asked. He was thinking about Jack, but quickly getting focused- more so than even he usually was. Jack put him back in the game.

"Including extended families, over 100 individuals in the Pittsburgh area affected by that fire."

"So he's targeting grief, eh?"

Angel frowned. That was a Hotchism. She had never heard him say, ' _eh_ '.

"Grief?"

"An event," Spencer said. "A single event in the unsub's life led him to end the life of someone he believes had to die. From that moment on he created his own sense of morality- what is right and what is wrong- and he rationalizes what he did, that first kill over and over again, by targeting people he believes can't be saved by anyone other than himself. He decides who lives and who dies, and this gives him an all-consuming sense of power."

"So they're not gonna stop anytime soon."

"Well that's assuming there's someone to actually stop."

Angel glared at Morgan. Hotch continued. "And if there is, He's convinced he's on a mission of mercy, and even after he's caught, he'll maintain he did nothing wrong."

"He."

Rossi proceeded with their profile. "White male, mid to late 30s, He's polite, forthcoming, doesn't stand out. And we believe his victims, these families, are all letting him in."

"My brother and his wife weren't letting anyone in. If anything they were closing themselves off."

"Well, this unsub has found a way in, one that's very hard to trace."

"In every case there was no evidence of a struggle, no attempt at escapes." Morgan was trying to see the case as a case and failing.

"He finds a personal connection and uses it to buy time."

"My officers need to know this."

"We found," Hotch said with much difficulty, "that angels of mercy are often people in the medical profession, as well as law enforcement."

"Cops."

Emily gave an affirmative. "Which is why we're meeting out here."

"Now, we're only fishing. We don't want to point a finger."

"Point it," the detective said. "I don't give a damn."

Hotch told him, "If that's what it's about, let us figure out where to point it."

"I asked Garcia to check first responders who were on scene at the fire," Spencer said.

Hotch nodded. "Good. Prentiss?"

"He's smart. He knows all about these people's schedules, their routines."

"Look, if this unsub does exist, this is a guy about control. He chooses how they die, when they die. He even positions them how he wants them to die. That makes him hyper-vigilant. A guy who's always on the look out, risk averse, unseen."

"The only way to stop him is to find out how he's managed to get into all of his victims' lives."

"We find that out, we've got our killer."

*

Angel watched the mother before her carefully. Her thoughts were a mess and honestly, she couldn't make out half of it. She hated herself for letting her daughter go to that dance. She hated her son for being alive when her daughter wasn't. She hated herself for thinking such things. She hated, everything.

"Do you, uh, believe we may know this person?" The father asked, holding he cutest little boy.

"Yes, we do."

"We just buried our daughter," Laurie Ann said with a slight slur. She hated being here. She hated herself for being alive and everyone else with her.

"Yes, we know."

"Whatever his motivations are," JJ said. "It's crucial that we look into every part of your life."

Emily was noticing the mother's avoidance of her son. "Oh, like he's done or is doing, right?"

"Um, can you think of anyone who might want-"

"Might want to kill us?"

The father tried to calm her down. "They're just doing their job."

The baby said some gibberish, but the woman did not seem to notice. "He's a white male," Angel said, "mid 30s. He comes across as very concerned, friendly, charming."

"No," the father said. The mother couldn't think of anyone either, thinking about her next meeting with a grief counseling.

Angel stood abruptly and left the room, trying to find Hotch and Spencer. "Hotch?"

"What is it?"

"I think I know how he's getting to his victims." He set the letter in his hand down and looked up.

"What? How?"

Angel went over the suicide notes Spencer was rereading. "These notes, they're amends. They're all in some anonymous group for grieving. That's how we haven't found him. Like, Alcoholics Anonymous. After something traumatic, a lot of times some sort of program is suggested, right? This is one of the steps."

"Making amends to yourself. These were never meant for anyone else to read."

"Guys," Morgan said at the door. "We have the information from Garcia. They were all injected along the hairline with some paralytic. And there's another victim."

Hotch grabbed his coat. "We'll have to split up. You and Rossi check out the victim and see if there's anything new. Spencer, Angel, you, JJ, and Prentiss get a list from Garcia. We'll split up and cover more ground on the different programs."

*

Peter and James. Those were the names they found. His father was a professor at Brassard. His older brother was molested, and Peter pretended he was asleep. This was what started it. Angel stood close to Spencer, feeling that feeling of absolute loathing without any idea as to who it should be directed at. Often, she felt bad for the unsubs more than she hated them. She wasn't sure if this was one of those times.

"Angels of mercy," Spencer said, moving around behind Angel to the board. "They repeat the same event."

"What are you getting at?" Morgan asked, finally and thankfully on board that this was legit.

"Well, like you said. If the story's true then he's leaving one key piece of information out. The event that started it all." His brother didn't commit suicide. She wasn't looking forward to coming face to face with this one and his mind. The fire caused too much grief and suffering, it triggered that part of him. He was devolving.

"I got it," Garcia's voice said over the speakerphone. "It's from 1984. It's the Brassard College university newspaper. It says here James Redding was the youngest suicide in Pennsylvania history. And his father Charles Redding was a professor. Creep."

"Is there any possibility that while we've been talking, you've been multi-tasking?"

"What, and have an address?"

"Ha ha. I love you, Penelope Garcia."

"Get in line."

*

He had a chart of various programs and groups as well as when they were meeting. He had a list, and he was after Laurie Ann Morris. Angel wasn't sure what to do. She knew which group she was going to, but how could she explain that? Luckily, she didn't have to. She often, despite being a 'free' person and no longer on the run for seventeen years, forgot about modern technology. Emily called the husband as they dispersed in separate vehicles and they had a location.

Once there, they split up to find her or the unsub and Angel reached out to try and find her mind, running like she was being pulled by a string that was being retracted. Laurie Ann was talking to him. He was telling her she would know when to quit. That she had good intuition. That he was late. Angel ran faster. Being on the run for seven years wasn't something you forgot- no matter how many years pass. She could still outrun the best of them. She was still the fastest.

She found him leaning into Laurie Ann's window, she was offering a ride because his car 'broke down' and Angel pulled her gun out a few feet away.

"Peter Redding, FBI, freeze!"

He jerked to look at her and had a gun pointed at Laurie Ann through the window. "I'll shoot."

"No," she said. "You won't. I know what you did to your brother, Peter. I know he wasn't the one who slashed his own wrists. You did that for him."

"He was troubled. He needed peace."

"And you gave it to him, but that is not what Laurie Ann wants."

"Yes it is," he argued. "I know it is. She-she told me. She looked at me and I knew what she wanted."

Spencer and Morgan were there now, both with their guns trained on him. Peter moved the gun and Angel shot, making him fall to the ground clutching his thigh.

"I need a medic," Morgan said into his handheld transceiver.

Angel held her hand hard against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

*

Back home, Angel pulled the popcorn out of the microwave and walked to the living room- her wings out and stretched a bit. She sighed contently and twitched her wings, perching herself on her bed and clicking on the television when there was a knock at the door. She frowned and paused her movie, walking out to the living room. It was Spencer, standing on her front step awkwardly. She smiled and pulled on the long cardigan on the coat hanger beside the door- tucking her wings in.

"Hey, Spence."

"Angel, hi, I just, I was in the neighborhood and was wondering if maybe you wanted to go see a movie or something."

He wasn't in the neighborhood, he had drove here and circled the block four times before getting the courage to knock. He had felt stupid, more so than Emily and Garcia talked about shoes, when he walked up to the door and knocked. He had combed his hair.

"What, like a date?"

"Not if you don't want it to be," he said. He was losing his nerve and Angel interrupted.

"I do, actually. And yes. That sounds lovely. Come in, I'll go get changed."

He caught a glance at something move under her shirt in the back, but he ignored which Angel was thankful for. He was just glad she said yes.

 **A/N: I feel terribly guilty about how irregularly I'm updating. I promise I haven't forgotten any of my stories. I just follow the muse. At the moment it likes Angel. Hope you do too. Next will be more Angel/Spencer interaction and less procedural. Scout's honor. Love always, Skye.**


	3. Crescent

Chapter three: Crescent

Angel turned around to find Spencer smiling clumsily at her. They were in Wal-Mart, two weeks after their first date. It was the day before Halloween.

"What about this one?" He asked, holding up a Scream mask.

She grimaced. "Too cliché. Why not just fangs and go as Dracula?"

"Did you know that Dracula is the second most portrayed character in the movie industry?"

"Yes, second to Sherlock Holmes. What about going as Sherlock?"

He shook his head. "That's a bit, I don't know. Just no. What are you going as? _Are_ you even dressing up or anything?"

"And not see Hotch's face? Of course I am. Even though, we're going to be the only ones. You know that don't you?"

"No one ever does anything for Halloween."

"It _is_ the FBI, Spencer. It's probably against their natures as alpha males."

"I suppose. Or they just go with the crowd and to the others it's just another day."

She picked up a mask and held it up to her face. "What about this one?" Her voice was muffled through it.

Spencer held up a horned mask. "How is that different than the Scream mask? It's the same one." His too was hard to make out.

"Ah! But the other one doesn't have the blood." She pumped the hand thing that made fake blood ooze on the inside of the mask.

Spencer set his own back on the shelf and took the one she had. "Huh. What are you going to do?"

Angel held up a halo and smirked. "I should think it'd be obvious."

"And you called the Scream mask cliché?"

"Oh shush, and grab those gloves would you? The net ones?"

He took them off the rack and handed them to her for her to throw in the cart. They walked a few feet and she looked through a pack of fake tattoos.

"You could go with a devil mask," she suggested, moving on to glow in the dark nail polish.

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know. It could be fun. I'm going as the angel."

"By that logic I should go as God."

"Good luck with that."

He threw another mask, the devil one, into the cart and Angel moved the cart towards the make up aisle. "I'll meet you there," he told her. "I need to go pick something up."

"Alright," she said, smiling at his thoughts. He was getting her a charm for her bracelet. She had a necklace with a feather from Max's wings she had kept for all these years, and a bracelet with a charm for each of her flock. She never went anywhere without them.

Angel was looking at body glitter dust when he came upon the aisle she was on, actually making her jump at the wolf mask he had picked up that looked far too much like the monster hybrids the School had cooked up to retrieve her Flock. The Erasers had hunted them down for years and she still had nightmares about them.

"Ugh! Spencer, how many masks do you need?"

"Well, one is for going in tomorrow. Another is for today, and another because I can't yet decide which is going to be which."

"Which is your favorite?"

He looked down into the cart with a frown. "I'm not sure."

Angel chuckled and kissed his cheek, setting a tube of lip gloss into the cart along with the body dust. "So. On to candy?"

"Actually originally children would dress up for money and food, not just candy. Candy was mostly involved with the increased popularity."

"So.. Kit-Kats?"

"Yes, please."

*

Angel came home an hour later after taking Spencer home, coming in through the door and immediately taking off her jacket and shirt down to her camisole to let her wings unfurl. Total the Scottish Terrier was on the couch with his Alaskan Malamute wife, Akila, and looked up when she came in, giving her wings a tentative flap to stretch them a bit.

"Well? How is the mate?"

"He's not my mate, Total. People don't call it that."

"I still can't believe your mate is too afraid to meet us."

She sighed and poured a glass of milk. "He isn't afraid, Total. Most animals just tend to not like him."

"He's grouping us with those heathens?"

"Total. Stop being difficult or I won't show you what I got for you."

He immediately perked up. "You didn't happen to have stopped by Tom's, did you?"

"What? And bring you home a double cheeseburger?" She asked as she pulled the object out of the bag. "No, never."

She set it on the table and he gratefully hopped into the seat to eat it. "Be nice about Spencer, Total. I really like this guy."

He mumbled through food. "As opposed to the hundreds of other men you've had beating down your door?"

"I wasn't interested in anyone before now."

"And you choose the one afraid of animals."

"You know, they had a great sale on Purina earlier. Maybe I should go pick you and Akila up some."

He glared as best the dog could. "I get it. He's not for joking about."

"You'd better remember. I'm going flying, want to come?"

"Oh, I would, but I'm soo tired. I think I'll just go nap."

"Stay away from my pillow or you'll lose bed privileges."

She heard with a smirk, him shout after her as she walked out the back door, "When did you become such a monster?"

Angel hadn't flown in such a long time. Maybe that was the problem. She had been so stressed with starting at the BAU and their cases. She'd had more nightmares. It felt amazing to just let go and feel the wind through her hair that was going to be hell to comb through later, to smell the breeze that still vaguely smelled wet from rain the three days prior, hear the trees whistle as they blew with it. The higher she flew, the calmer she felt. She flew up high and then curled her wings to drop a hundred feet, only to catch herself with a semi painful jerk.

Total was on her pillow asleep when she went home. She smiled and curled up beside him, kissing his head. He needed a bath.

*

Angel was excited. Finally, a day she didn't have to hide and could just let her wings out, even if it was just for a costume and not to fly. She still had to be careful that no one caught on, but after years of this charade no one ever caught on. Then again, she'd never spent the holiday around profilers. Around Spencer.

She twirled a bit, her white lace dress fanning out around her and her bare feet against the cold wood floor. She smiled at her reflection and pulled the top layer of her hair back into an unimaginable amount of bobby pins. Her cheeks were brushed with a dusting of the body glitter as well as her shoulders. Her lips were lined with the faintest hint of red lip gloss. Her bracelet held the new charm Spencer gave her of a piano. She had always loved the piano. It was the only instrument she could even remotely play.

"Who are you trying to impress?" Total asked tiredly. She still didn't understand how he could sleep as much as he did.

"I'm just dressing for the holiday. Go back to sleep."

"Mhmm. If you say so."

Angel rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag. It felt weird to drive with her wings out. She had to take her halo off when she got into the car and put in back on when she parked, coincidentally beside Garcia. She was wearing black and orange, but nothing more that would be for Halloween.

"Angel?"

"In the feathers," she smiled at her own pun.

"Oh, let me look at you! You look adorable." Garcia clapped her hands and linked her arm with Angel's. "Reid is just not going to know what hit him."

Hotch and Rossi were the next two that they came across. Both chuckled at seeing her with her wings. Rossi held her hand and spun her around in a short dance.

"Semplicemente bello, cara mia."

"Thank you," she said.

Hotch did his slight smile/smirk and quirked an eyebrow. "I don't suppose you collaborated with Reid. He just passed by with a devil mask."

Garcia squealed. "Oh! That's even cuter."

"I had no idea," Angel said.

"Sure you didn't."

"No, really, I didn't know he'd choose that one. He bought five of them before we left the store."

Her wings twitched and Hotch frowned, reaching out to them. "How did you do these?"

"Just, I, uh, knew a girl in Hollywood make up. She showed me a few things."

"Huh. Impressive."

"Thanks," she whispered. "I, uh, I should probably go see them. I mean, who else is going to steal Morgan's coffee?"

Morgan, Emily, and Spencer were at their desks. Spencer's mask was over on his head and he was explaining the history of trick or treating to the two of them when Morgan saw them.

"Oh, thank God. Please, Button, make him stop."

Angel moved around and took the insulated cup off her desk and sipped. He tried to trick her. "Button?"

"I'm trying to think of a name for you. Why not Button?"

"Because I'm not made of plastic?"

"No, just apparently feathers. Wow, that's one hell of a costume."

Spencer was staring at her. Angel smiled at him. "I always dress up as an angel."

"You look great," Emily told her. "Really. Halloween spirit!"

"You guys never say stuff like that when _I_ bring costumes," Spencer said with a frown.

Garcia patted his cheek and pouted with him. "That's because there's a difference between beautiful and handsome, my Junior G-man. Now, what's everyone's plans?"

"Hot date," Morgan laughed, winking at Garcia. "Baby Girl and I are going to a party."

"Em?"

"I have an _actual_ date, thank you."

Angel took a kitkat from the bowl Spencer brought. "Spence and I are just going to give out candy and watch horror films."

"I thought we were watching Mystery Science Theater."

"Well, whatever it is you are all planning- it will have to wait." Everyone groaned at JJ, who looked frazzled. "We got a case. And they need us immediately in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Grab your go bags and meet on the jet."

Angel sighed and looked to Garcia. "Will you feed Total and Akila?"

"And Clooney?" Morgan asked as he threw his duffel bag over his shoulder.

"All the pets, taken care of. Come home safe."

Spencer walked behind Angel, a hand on the small of her back beneath her wings. He was thinking about how wonderful she did them. He'd almost think they were real. Angel snuck a look at him and back to where she was walking. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to dress up, or, not dress up.

For the past four years, groups of anywhere from three to seven people go missing. They're taken from parties, dates, homes, and always missing a week before turning up somewhere dead. Never in the same dump site and never dead from the same way. The only reason the authorities knew they were related were the days they went missing, a group of friends or otherwise close knit, always a week, and when the bodies were found they were always in a line based on time of death and some sort of note on each body with a label.

Last year there were four. Two were burned to death, another drowned, and the last was thrown off a great height. They had twelve hours to find out who the unub was before he took his next victims.

"Three years ago, the unsub abducted seven people all from a party. I find it difficult to believe that just one unsub did this." Spencer told them.

"So a group, how do we determine how many?"

Hotch answered Emily. "No less than four, but no more than seven."

"How do you figure?" Morgan asked.

Angel answered as she came out of the bathroom, out of her 'costume' and into a pair of black jeans and a red top. "They went as high as seven, but then back down to four because they found it was too much, but more than three because they moved to more victims to give each person a job. I'd average a guess around six."

"So why are they choosing these people to take?" JJ asked. "Some of them are physically capable of fighting back. Why risk failure with difficult ones?"

"Because they're a group, a pack. The unsubs might be trying to prove to each other that they are the loyal ones to each other. That others will leave them. Maybe they're putting them against one another."

"Are there no leads?"

"None. No prints at the scene, no clues as to where they were taken, nothing."

Hotch sighed. "Fun."

*

They went to the police department with Sheriff Owens where there was only. One. File. That was it. It listed the names of the victims for each year and not much else.

"You mean, this is all you have?"

"Well, yeah. That's why we called you guys."

Nothing happened. They found nothing in any records or anywhere else. It wasn't until nine when Rossi suggested that they get to their hotel where they could get a fresh start the next day. Unfortunately, the annual disappearances would help them better than anything today.

"Alright," Hotch said, walking to the tired group with the room keys. "We've got four rooms, it's the best they had and only because it's off season."

"I'm not rooming with Reid," came Morgan's automatic answer. He meant it jokingly, and apparently Spencer said random facts in his sleep.

Hotch clenched his jaw against a yawn. "I'll room with Reid."

Angel and JJ would room, Morgan and Rossi, and Emily alone. Hotch passed around the keys; 215 for Emily, 216 for Morgan and Rossi, 217 for Hotch and Spencer, and 218 for JJ and Angel.

"In 1885 during construction a man named Michael fell to his death in what would become room 218. He's said to still haunt it. There have been reports of people seeing a ghostly figure watching from the window."

Angel wordlessly traded keys with Hotch, who glared at Spencer. Morgan scoffed. "How do you even know that?"

"I read a lot."

*

Angel was woken by a sound, though she wasn't sure what the sound was. It was a sound that didn't fit. Her eyes stayed closed as she listened to the slow footsteps, only barely able to hear that they were there. Then she heard a quiet, muffled shriek from JJ's bed and shot out of hers at the one closest to her- her body remembering moves she hadn't used in years and some she only knew from watching Max and Fang. She had the man on his hands and knees and she on his back when JJ called her name in a desperate whisper. The other man, for there were two, had JJ by the throat with a gun to her temple.

Angel panted softly and raised off of the unsub, removing her knee from his neck with her hands raised. "Just don't hurt her. Please."

And that was all she wrote . . .

 **A/N: No, that's not all for this story! Just the chapter and my way of saying they knocked her out in order to relocate her. My family at the end of a story or something always say something like "That's all she wrote, dear john." Silly, I know. Anyway. Hope you like it, my husband thought it was too cliche and felt like TV. Not in a good way. Oh well. Onward, in which she awakes in a strange place with someone she didn't expect. Love always, Skye.**

 **P.S. Skye isn't my real name, and neither is Angel, but literally everyone in my life called me Angel until I hit high school. It's a bit awkward writing this. Just saying. Which is also strange because I don't have any issue on the off occasion I DO use my real name. Just Angel.**


	4. Two

Chapter four: Two

She groaned as she slowly woke, a dull ache in her body as though she'd been hit with a very large mallet repeatedly until they'd gotten her entire body. She was laying on her stomach with her face in a small puddle of something that she thought was water and carefully lifted herself on her hands and knees. Still in her nightclothes, she spit out a bit of the liquid, yep, water, and groaned again in pain.

"Angel?"

"Hotch?"

"Are you okay?"

She blinked a few times while her vision adjusted to a form a few feet away from her, leaning against a wall. She crawled over to him. "I'm fine, just achy all over. You?"

"Same. Do you remember anything before now? Did you see them?"

"No, I mean, yes, I saw them, but I didn't make anything out. I took one down, but the other had JJ. I had to let go."

"So they have her too, we can assume then they have Reid and maybe the others. We have to find them."

That was when the lights were turned on with a bright flash. Angel covered her eyes and then squinted through for her eyes to adjust again to the light. There was a click and then an intercom came on with a drawling voice.

 _"_ _By now, you have all woken up in your pairs. Here's how you play the game. Find your friends, find the exit, and we'll never come near you or anyone else again. You have six days. Along the way there will be rooms with food and drink. These will be safe rooms where you may rest without fear of dangers. Choose the wrong door, and you may find yourself in terrible peril. Good luck."_

"That's great," Hotch said, standing up. "A game."

"Let's find the others and bring them down. Shall we?"

He stretched a bit and nodded, looking around the room. He hadn't changed out of his suit yet, only taken off his jacket and tie. There was nothing aside from a few puddles from dripping water and some rubble. And a door. Angel walked over to it and went to open it when Hotch stopped her.

"Wait." _We need to think._

"What's there to think about?" She asked aloud in response to his thoughts. He snapped his eyes to hers and she looked away.

"We need to at least be cautious about things."

She nodded. "All right, but we need to go. We don't know how big this building is or where the others are. They're probably paired like we are, which means two- plus Emily if she's alone. We also don't know how long we've been out and therefore how much time. Let's go."

She opened the door and they carefully stepped into the long hallway. They were at the end. Angel started walking down the hall, Hotch beside her. She tried to think of how the Egyptians used to booby trap their catacombs, but she wasn't Reid. At the other end of the hallway was a door before the hall went in an L shape to the side and upon reaching the door, she saw that there was another door down that way.

The first door had a sort of lever to pull in order to open it and the metal was cold when she touched it. She pulled it and it opened to a meat locker of sorts that was seemingly empty. Hotch was about to take a step, when she stopped him. Something wasn't right.

"What do you have in your pockets?" Angel asked him. He frowned and reached into them. Nothing. "Then, give me a shoe."

"A shoe?"

"Yes, a shoe. Either it will save your life or you'll get it back."

Hotch looked down at her own feet, which were bare, and knelt to untie his own and hand to her. Angel took the shoe from him and threw it into the room. It only reached halfway before it was incinerated. Hotch and Angel stared with held breath and wide eyes as his shoe was no more. This was his favorite pair, but he said nothing.

"That's some shit."

He nodded in agreement and took his other off, pulling her away from that room to the next. He opened this one with just a push as it had no door knob. Just a room. They both sighed and walked carefully across. Angel only stopped to pick up a piece of forgotten pipe. There was only a door way to enter the next hallway which had two doors on either side.

"Okay," Hotch said. "I think we should look in all of them before deciding which one to enter and maybe continue through."

"Right. Anything we find, I think we should keep with us. Just to use to maybe set off any traps."

"This is amazingly well coordinated. The leader is highly intelligent."

"Or, just practice at getting better. They may have been doing this for longer than we realize. Do you think they took us on purpose for who we are?"

"It can't just be a coincidence," he told her, opening a door to their right.

It held a floor of spikes shooting up. No, she thought as she wriggled her cold toes. Actually, she was just cold. Her nightclothes were shorts and a tank top with slits cut in the back, it was freezing. "So, you thinking police?"

"I'm thinking the sheriff."

The next room was pitch black and they couldn't see anything. She knew from Hotch's thoughts there was no way they were going down there without seeing what there was.

"It's not him," she knew. His thoughts had solely been about finding out who the unsubs were.

"You're sure?"

She wrapped her arms around herself and nodded. Another room, leading to another hallway. The last was a brick wall. Not a real door. Angel and Hotch moved to the new hall, Angel walking first and as soon as she walked through the door way, something swung into her hard- knocking the wind out of her and throwing her back into Hotch who had to catch her to keep her from falling.

"Angel?"

She was coughing, her chest burning at where it had hit her. A bar, now looking at it, had come around on an automated something and hit her.

"I'm okay," she choked out. "I just need a second."

"Alright. You're- God, you're freezing." He unbuttoned his shirt and held it out to her. "Take it."

Angel moved to sit steady. He was kneeling beside her. "No, Hotch. Trust me, I have thick skin."

"Thick skin that's shivering an covered in goosebumps. Take the damn shirt."

She gingerly took it from him and tugged it on. It was warm. He looked silly now in his suit pants and a T-shirt. He helped her up and they looked into the room. It looked like that was the only thing, but to be sure, Hotch threw his other shoe. Nothing.

Angel wasn't sure what to make of his mind. He was wondering who was the unsub in the police department, how Angel knew it wasn't the sheriff, if everyone else was okay. He was wondering about her, being suspicious that she was hiding something. She pulled his shirt around her more and ducked under the bar to follow him.

She tried to reach out to find the others minds, but could reach and wasn't sure why. Maybe it was all the metal. The walls were metal. The floors were stone. She couldn't hear anyone else without being closer.

"Do you think one of them works at the hotel or threatened the person working the desk to find out what rooms we were in?"

"Or watched us and snuck in."

Angel frowned. "What were you doing? When they came. Obviously you were still awake, you hadn't changed out of your clothes."

"Actually, I fell asleep in the chair. I remember hearing something and then I barely opened my eyes when I don't remember anything again. Then I'm in a dark room. I thought I was alone until you moved. You said you were asleep?"

"Yes. JJ and I both were. Like you said, I heard something and woke up. I pretended to be asleep until I heard JJ and then went for the nearest person, but the other had JJ by the throat with a gun."

Hotch was now thinking about JJ. She was pregnant and this was supposed to be her last case before she went on leave. She was alone after Will left and they had to get her out of here.

There was a door. Or, not a door per say, but a plastic divider that lead into a room of water where the floor was just a pool to nothing on the other side. But there was a window with a ladder to it from the water halfway there. If they could get to the window, they could maybe see where they were and how big the building was. Something. Hotch was unbuttoning his pants to dive in.

"Stop! I should go. I can guarantee I'm a better swimmer."

"I'm a fair swimmer," he told her, taking his shirt off. "Besides, I have more clothes than you and will be able to be semi dry when I get back."

She wasn't going to win, plus, she supposed that if he went she'd be able to see out through his mind and they'd both know what was out there. "Be careful, yeah? We don't know what's in the water."

He dove in and swam towards the window in long strokes. She'd admit that he seemed to be a good swimmer as he got there a lot faster than she would have.

"Are those briefcases on your boxers?"

"I didn't ask your opinion on them." Haley had bought them as a snub, but they were his favorites. "I don't see much of anything. I see a lot of trees."

She could see too. "What about to your left?"

"What? Oh, I think I see the hotel." _How did she know that was there?_

Angel almost groaned in frustration. This would be so much easier if he just knew. The last time she was in this position, the position of trying to escpape and being in such danger, she was with people who knew what she could do and could more or less do the same things. Minus reading minds, of course. Now, she had to pretend. She could get out of the window. She could fly and get down to help and bring them back, but she couldn't leave Hotch and the others. Besides, how would that look? That she was able to get out alone mysteriously.

"Come back," she said. "I really think we need to get moving. We have to find the others."

It looked to be dusk. A day gone by. Hotch swam back and pulled himself out of the water. "I'm feeling time pressure. This place is huge. If we want to find the others we need to go now."

"Alright, come on."

He shook off as best he could and pulled his pants and shirt back on. They jogged down the hallway, the hall taking turns twice, once left and once right, to a stair well that ended with two doors. One on the left, and one on the right. Angel moved the pipe she kept from one of the first rooms and jabbed it down to each step ahead, until she missed one.

"Aah!"

"Angel! Are you okay?"

Her foot was stuck in a trick stair and he grabbed her around the waist to pull her out of it. It wasn't broken, she knew what broken bones felt like, but she definitely twisted it something awful as it was already bruising into black and blues and hues of purple.

"I'm okay. I didn't mean to, I just-"

"Angel. You're alright. Come on, lean on me." She put her arm around his shoulder and they went down the rest of the stairs to the first door.

Hotch helped her lean against the wall so he could open the door, but again it was another room completely black and they couldn't see anything. No. The next door was stuck. Hotch tried to shoulder it, but it barely budged as he banged his weight against it.

"Maybe we should go back." Bang.

"No. We have to find the others and this is the way to go." Bang.

"You're going to" Bang, "hurt yourself, Hotch." Bang, "Stop it." Bang, "We don't know what's on the other-"

With a last effort, he threw his weight against the door and it slammed open. It led to outside, from a top floor off a cliff. And he was gone.

"HOTCH!"

Angel tore his button up shirt off of her and jumped out the door after him. He was falling and Angel could appreciate how high they were. The building, it seemed looking at it now, was three floors. They'd been on the top floor were making their way to the second when they found this door. The building was built off of a cliff and Angel was reminded of her home so long ago with just her and her flock before it all began again and the Erasers kidnapped her.

She wrapped her arms around him, wind whipping around her face.

"Are you stupid?!" He shouted at her over the noise.

"I can explain," she shouted back, "but I need you to stay still."

"What are you doing?"

Her wings caught them painfully, coming to a stop after falling and for a moment, like ever when she did this, she felt almost like her wings were being ripped off. She flapped and began getting altitude and Hotch said nothing. He stared at her with a blank expression as she tried to get them back to the door. He was heavy.

When she reached the landing, she let go and collapsed against the steps breathing heavily. He shut the door and leaned against it to stare at her more. Or more, her wings, which were fluttering absentmindedly as she caught her breath.

"So," she started, her breathing go back to normal but her heart still pumping wildly. "Next time, just leave the damn door alone. Yeah?"

He did nothing, just stared at her. Even his thoughts were a jumble, a loop of _wings, wings, wings, wings, wings, wings, wings_. "You have wings. Your wings were real."

She stood up. "Yes. The wings are real. Halloween is the only day of the year I can be myself."

"How?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I think, considering you just _flew_ to save my life, I'd believe you."

Angel shook her foot, still painful, but healing. "I was born in a secret government lab called the School. There were others like me. They're all dead now. I'm the last one."

"What are you?"

"Well, they mixed our DNA with birds'. I'm two percent bird. I have hollow bones, nuclei in my blood, air pockets in my lungs, and wings I can fly with."

Hotch blinked. "Th-that's insane."

"Yeah, well, _they're_ all dead now too."

"Are you being for real?"

He didn't know what to do. It sounded outrageous, but so did the idea that she had wings. And yet, here she was. She nodded to his question and pushed something into his mind.

 _I can hear you._

He jumped and his eyes widened again as he realized what she meant and what she had just done.

"You can... read thoughts."

"And manipulate them. Depending on the person I can influence them to do what I want."

Hotch straightened from the door. "Do you.. do that often?"

"Actually, no. I can't remember the last time I did it. I can't do it to any of you, you're minds are too strong. Nor would I if I could."

"Does Reid know?"

"No one alive aside from my dogs know. And now, I suppose, you."

Hotch was shaking just slightly, cursing himself in his mind and trying to get a hold of himself. "That's, I, yeah."

"Hotch? I can answer any questions, but I think it should be on the way. Don't you? It's the end of the first day." At the last word she said, there was an echo of a bark and she whipped around to behind them. There were snarls and more barks as it sounded like they were moving. "Now, we really have to go."

She ran to the other door and wretched it open, holding it for Hotch to run after her. And they ran.

"Your foot," he said, slightly behind her.

"I'm a really fast healer."

She was getting tired of hallways as more barks were getting closer. They needed to find one of those so called 'safe rooms'. This would explain the animal attacks on a few of the victims. At night they unleashed dogs to chase the victims. Hotch was hoping JJ was safe in this as she had a past with dogs that liked to tear people apart.

"That's disgusting," she said aloud, not realizing how she missed being able to be open about herself.

"Tobias Hankel," he said.

"Right. The one who abducted Spencer and drugged him."

"He told you about that?"

"Not exactly."

There was one door ahead and Hotch ran faster towards it to open it. The moment he touched the door knob, he let go in a shriek. It was red hot and his palm came away from it blistered and smelling of pork. Angel went to examine his hand when there was a bark and a low growl behind her. She jumped and turned around to look at the german sheppard that was baring his teeth at them and growling, as well as the doberman doing the same beside him. Angel slowly backed to the door and grabbed the door knob, turning it and ignoring the sizzle in her palm to pull Hotch into the room and slamming the door behind them. There was another door in the room and a table of random packaged foods such as crackers and the like and bottles of water. In the corner was a pile of blankets and Angel sighed in relief. A safe room.

"Let me see your hand," Angel said, grabbing a bottle of water off the table. She unscrewed the cap and poured a dab on the back of her hand to be sure it was safe and then poured it onto the burned flesh of his hand. He hissed through his teeth and tried to jerk his hand away, but she kept pouring the liquid onto it.

"Thank you," he said. "Now let me see yours."

Hers was a harsh red, but not the bright angry red his was. It looked as though it had happened an hour or two ago and not a minute.

"It will hurt and look like that for a few days," she told him. "Yours will most likely take a few weeks."

Hotch poured the rest of the water on her hand then they looked around the average sized room. There were a few packages of crackers, and a box of various MRE's with a dozen waterbottles. Four military grade blankets.

Angel went over to the blankets, all fairly old and had seen some use, and tore two strips off of one. The first she tied around Hotch's hand, soaking it in water that was actually fairly cold. But maybe that was because the room was cold. He hissed again at the tightness of the rough fabric against his burn and she loosened it.

"Sorry."

"So, you can read minds, heal faster than others, fly, is there anything you can't do?"

She smiled. "I can't seem to make my dog stay off my pillow."

He chuckled half heartedly and took a sip of water. "And you said a government facility?"

"We called it the School."

"We?"

"My flock. Max was the leader. The oldest. Then Fang. Then Iggy. They were all fifteen when they died. We had just had a birthday. None of us knew our real birthdays so we just sort of decided randomly when we wanted to have a birthday. Next was Nudge. She was twelve. My brother, we were the only ones actually related, was nine. I was seven when they died.

"One day, one of the White Coats helped us escape. Jeb. He taught us how to fly, how to defend and take care of ourselves. He was Max's real father. He left us to go back to help the School. He had never really left. And then we were on the run."

"You were seven."

"Six at the time."

"How did they die?" He asked in a whisper.

She sniffed. "We were getting rid of the School. Once and for all. Iggy died first. His girlfriend, Max's sister, was stuck in an area we had just rigged to blow up. Iggy and Gazzy were always into explosives. You should have seen what they did with Max's Mickey Mouse clock. Anyway. He was still trying get her out when it went off. Next was Nudge. And Gazzy. They were torn apart by hybrids the School had made called Erasers. They could morph into wolves. I still hear them screaming sometimes. Fang stayed behind to hold them off so Max and I could get out. Max was caught by another hybrid and the building was about to go. She shoved me out the window into the lake and that was that."

Hotch was silent, repeating her story to himself in his head. _Has she just been alone?_

"Not really," she answered aloud. "I was found by a regular person and put into the system. My dogs, Akila and Total lived. They came with me and when I turned eighteen, I left out on my own to an old hide out we'd had. Graduated college, joined the FBI, then BAU, and here we are."

"That's... awful."

"It is what it is."

There was a bang against the other door that made them both jump, the door they hadn't gone through yet. And then it opened.

 **A/N: Hope I was able to explain her past okay. Who do you think finds them? An unsub? Another team member? OOOOHHHHOHHOHOHOH! All the creepy sounds. Do you like Hotch finding out? His reaction?**

 **Soo, background romances. I'm thinking about pairing Emily and Rossi together, but who should be with Hotch? I just reached the episode with Beth and their date. What do you guys think of her?**

 **My issue with shows is that I write fanfiction for them and therefore get angry with their real canon couplings. That's crazy isn't it?**

 **Love always, Skye.**


	5. Four

Chapter five: Four

Then door creaked open and Hotch pulled Angel behind him as Morgan and JJ burst in and slammed the door, both shaken. Both bloody. Morgan leaned with his forehead against the door and JJ was sitting with her knees up and crying. They had been attacked by dogs.

"Morgan?"

He jumped at Angel's voice and turned to see the two of them. Then he took two long steps and pulled her into a ferocious embrace. She hugged him back and buried her face into him. He was shaking. Hotch was making sure JJ was alright. Morgan let go of her and looked over her.

"Are you both okay?"

"We're fine. Hotch's hand is burned, but we wrapped it up and put water on it."

"And Angel's ankle is twisted, her hand is burned too, and she probably has a nasty bruise on her chest."

She sighed as she passed Morgan a water bottle. "I'm fine and my hand is too."

Morgan took the water, and her hand, moving to look closely at it. "Your hand, what happened to it?"

"Hotch's is worse. The door knob on the other side coming in was hot. The dogs were coming we had to get in." Angel moved down with Hotch and JJ and laid a hand on her knee. "JJ?"

JJ launched herself at Angel and hugged her. "You fought. They came, but you fought. Thank you."

"I love you, Jay. You're my best friend."

"I love you too, Angel. I'm so glad you two are okay. What happened to the two of you?"

Hotch passed her water and an MRE, they were barbeque pork sandwiches. "Not much. We found a window and the building we're in is three stories and built on a cliff within view of the hotel. We came across a stuck door leading out of the building from the third floor, almost plummeted there. That's when we heard the dogs."

Morgan motioned to JJ. "We found a room of broken glass, cut JJ up pretty good-"

"And Morgan's feet," JJ interjected. "His feet have some cuts."

"We found a hallway of regularly timed spikes. Every two seconds spikes came from the floor."

Angel paced. "We have to find Spencer and Rossi."

"And Prentiss if she was taken," Hotch said, "but we've been holding out hope that since she wasn't rooming with anyone that she wasn't taken."

Morgan sat down with his back to a wall and Angel sat down beside him, her legs over his and her head against the wall. JJ's back was against hers with a blanket around her body and Hotch was across from them drinking his water.

"You look weird," JJ said. "The undershirt and suit pants."

Everyone else was in their nightclothes. JJ in flannel pants and a long sleeve shirt, Angel in her shorts and tank, and Morgan in his pants and wife beater. Angel chuckled.

"His boxers have little briefcases on them."

"Really?" Morgan asked. "Should have known."

JJ stopped laughing with them. "Guys, what are we going to do?"

Angel leaned her head back against JJ's in hopes of comforting her. "We're going to find Spence and Rossi and get out of here. While doing that, we're going to find the unsubs and take them down because that's what we do."

"I'm scared."

Hotch nudged her foot with his. "Hey, we can do this. Let's focus on finding the others first. We can rule out the third floor and tomorrow we'll look through the second floor, they were probably put on the first floor. Where the exit should be."

JJ fell asleep first, followed an hour later by Morgan, until only Hotch and Angel were awake.

"Are you angry?" She whispered. He hadn't said much.

"I'm not angry at you. I understand your need to keep it all a secret. I mean, how would people react if they knew the truth?"

"Worship. In my experience, that is. We used to go around the world trying to save it. When people found out what we were they practically worshipped us. People who weren't like us wanted to purge the world of anyone else."

"You would think that would be all over the news or something."

"It was, for a time. But people knew me with wings as an unobtainable idol. Not me going to the park and eating strawberries."

Hotch nodded to himself. "Well, I know now. And I will stand by you as I did before. I trust you with my life. More than that, with the team. Plus, knowing this will come in handy. Did you hear anything with the unsubs?"

"No, I was too focused. The sheriff was only worried about finding them so it wasn't him."

"You two keep talking," Morgan mumbled. "Alright. I'm up again. We know that it's a pack preying on other packs."

"I also think Angel might have been right. Six unsubs." JJ was awake again too and Hotch felt guilty he woke her up. Angel wondered how long he had loved her.

"So, six unsubs who are close and sadistic."

JJ coughed and Angel wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close, rubbing her arms. "Young. The victims are all in their mid twenties, the unsubs probably are too."

"Then we come to town and they can't resist."

*

 _"_ _One day has pa-ast. And one is down, five to go. Congratulations, agents. You've lasted longer than anyone so far, but you are still weak. And we are strong."_

The intercom clicked off and everyone looked at each other, the message waking everyone.

"We need to get moving," Morgan said. "Find the others."

"What did he mean, one is down?" JJ asked. Angel was hearing Hotch's mind, thinking about how the man had worded the message. Congratulations, agents. Not 'and docter'. If someone was hurt, it was Spencer. But- the unsub could have been just trying to throw them off track by making them think one of their own was dead.

 _I hope it's the latter,_ she thought, pushing it toward his mind. He made eye contact and nodded.

Angel grabbed the blankets and laid them out in a flat stack to put the food and water in the middle. "We should take what we can. We might need it."

"Right," Morgan said, "but we need to find a different way than to just carry the blanket around like a hobo."

Hotch knelt down and undid it, piling two of the blankets, sorting the items and the torn blanket for injuries, and rolling it a bit like a burrito. "Alright. Who's going to carry it?"

"I will," Morgan said. Hotch lifted the new roll and held it up against Morgan's back.

 _Grab the last blanket and wrap it around the pack. We'll tie it around the front and it should stay in place._ Angel nodded and did as he asked, the two backing away to look. Perfect.

"We need to go find the others," JJ said, absently rubbing her stomach. She was eight and a half months.

"At least now we know for sure that Emily was left behind." Angel commented as Morgan opened the door.

There was the body of a dead dog just outside the door. Morgan had done that and now looking at it, he was disgusted with himself. They came out to a big hallway, with a continuation of the hallway to either side and a door straight ahead of them.

"Okay," Hotch said, taking control of the situation best they could. "Which way did the two of you come from?"

"We came from the right, but we didn't check that door out yet. This was the first."

Hotch moved to open the door ahead of them, waving for the rest of them to move incase something came out.

 _Careful with the knob._ Angel told him.

 _You can't say that out loud?_

 _This is more fun. I've missed it._

He patted the door knob with the back of his hand quickly. It was fine. He opened the door and saw... stairs. These were the stairs to go downstairs. Hotch and everyone else relaxed with a sighed of relief.

"Should we go down?" Morgan asked. "Or do you think maybe they could be up here?"

 _What do you think?_

 _If we get close enough I'll be able to hear their thoughts._

"Let's go down them," she said. "I tie Hotch's shirt around the door knob just in case they _are_ up here so they know we went back upstairs, but if they're injured or something then they might still be downstairs."

JJ nodded her agreement and she tied the sleeves around the door knob.

"Be careful about the steps. Some of them are trick stairs."

Morgan went first, then Angel and JJ, with Hotch pulling up the rear. Morgan moved slowly down the steps, testing each with one foot before stepping on it and trying the next. They got to the first landing, JJ tripped- only held from falling by Hotch who grabbed her before she could.

"Are you okay?" Angel asked.

"Just, a bit dizzy. My stomach hurts."

Angel searched JJ's mind and indeed, her stomach was hurting. It would hurt, and then it wouldn't. It had started yesterday. She was going into labor and they needed to get out of here. She pushed this towards Hotch, whose eyes widened in understanding.

"Morgan," she said. He turned, half way down the next flight. "We need to hurry."

"I'm working on it."

"Morgan! She's going into labor."

Morgan ran down the rest of the stairs, no tricks, and then came back to bring them down with him. The contractions were only lasting a few seconds, every twenty minutes, but they would get closer and closer together.

"I promise," she said. "We will get out of here."

JJ followed them down the stairs, Hotch staying close to help when she needed it. It was too early. She wasn't due for another three weeks.

At the end of the stairs, there was a door. Angel walked in front to open it to a large foyer-like room/hall that had hallways going straight and to either side with no doors.

"Alright-"

Angel interrupted Morgan. "We are _not_ splitting up and so help me if you even _think_ it."

He looked startled and Hotch suggested they take the left, which had two doors and a dead end otherwise. The first door, was just a room. The floor was tile, the walls look sticky, and there was a dirty window. Angel opened the door and took a few steps in and looked around. Above there were those bar lights, ones that reminded her of the School. She stared up at them and took another step, and the floor fell away. Quickly she tried to grab onto something. Anything. Her hands caught the sharp edges of the floor where a trap door had triggered and she gasped at the pain it caused, stripping the skin on her palms. She screamed out and then there was a hand over her wrist trying to pull her out. Then two.

"We got you," Morgan said as he and Hotch pulled her up. "We got you, button."

"I'm not made of plastic."

"No. You're heavier."

Once back on solid ground, she cradled her hands to her. They were bleeding, dripping, and JJ tried to pull them away from her to look at the damage.

"Let me see it," she said. "You have to let me fix it."

Morgan undid the blanket roll from his back and handed JJ a bottle of water. JJ poured it over her hands and bound them tightly. Twice.

 **A/N: Sooo... more time with Hotch. Her and JJ. JJ and Hotch (if you squint). What did you think? Next up... they find the others. Blah.. I wish I had more to say. Oh well. You guys are probably tired of reading my ramblings anyway. Love always, Skye. Almost forgot my fake name. Crazy.**


	6. Game

Chapter five: Four and Game

Then door creaked open and Hotch pulled Angel behind him as Morgan and JJ burst in and slammed the door, both shaken. Both bloody. Morgan leaned with his forehead against the door and JJ was sitting with her knees up and crying. They had been attacked by dogs.

"Morgan?"

He jumped at Angel's voice and turned to see the two of them. Then he took two long steps and pulled her into a ferocious embrace. She hugged him back and buried her face into him. He was shaking. Hotch was making sure JJ was alright. Morgan let go of her and looked over her.

"Are you both okay?"

"We're fine. Hotch's hand is burned, but we wrapped it up and put water on it."

"And Angel's ankle is twisted, her hand is burned too, and she probably has a nasty bruise on her chest."

She sighed as she passed Morgan a water bottle. "I'm fine and my hand is too."

Morgan took the water, and her hand, moving to look closely at it. "Your hand, what happened to it?"

"Hotch's is worse. The door knob on the other side coming in was hot. The dogs were coming we had to get in." Angel moved down with Hotch and JJ and laid a hand on her knee. "JJ?"

JJ launched herself at Angel and hugged her. "You fought. They came, but you fought. Thank you."

"I love you, Jay. You're my best friend."

"I love you too, Angel. I'm so glad you two are okay. What happened to the two of you?"

Hotch passed her water and an MRE, they were barbeque pork sandwiches. "Not much. We found a window and the building we're in is three stories and built on a cliff within view of the hotel. We came across a stuck door leading out of the building from the third floor, almost plummeted there. That's when we heard the dogs."

Morgan motioned to JJ. "We found a room of broken glass, cut JJ up pretty good-"

"And Morgan's feet," JJ interjected. "His feet have some cuts."

"We found a hallway of regularly timed spikes. Every two seconds spikes came from the floor."

Angel paced. "We have to find Spencer and Rossi."

"And Prentiss if she was taken," Hotch said, "but we've been holding out hope that since she wasn't rooming with anyone that she wasn't taken."

Morgan sat down with his back to a wall and Angel sat down beside him, her legs over his and her head against the wall. JJ's back was against hers with a blanket around her body and Hotch was across from them drinking his water.

"You look weird," JJ said. "The undershirt and suit pants."

Everyone else was in their nightclothes. JJ in flannel pants and a long sleeve shirt, Angel in her shorts and tank, and Morgan in his pants and wife beater. Angel chuckled.

"His boxers have little briefcases on them."

"Really?" Morgan asked. "Should have known."

JJ stopped laughing with them. "Guys, what are we going to do?"

Angel leaned her head back against JJ's in hopes of comforting her. "We're going to find Spence and Rossi and get out of here. While doing that, we're going to find the unsubs and take them down because that's what we do."

"I'm scared."

Hotch nudged her foot with his. "Hey, we can do this. Let's focus on finding the others first. We can rule out the third floor and tomorrow we'll look through the second floor, they were probably put on the first floor. Where the exit should be."

JJ fell asleep first, followed an hour later by Morgan, until only Hotch and Angel were awake.

"Are you angry?" She whispered. He hadn't said much.

"I'm not angry at you. I understand your need to keep it all a secret. I mean, how would people react if they knew the truth?"

"Worship. In my experience, that is. We used to go around the world trying to save it. When people found out what we were they practically worshipped us. People who weren't like us wanted to purge the world of anyone else."

"You would think that would be all over the news or something."

"It was, for a time. But people knew me with wings as an unobtainable idol. Not me going to the park and eating strawberries."

Hotch nodded to himself. "Well, I know now. And I will stand by you as I did before. I trust you with my life. More than that, with the team. Plus, knowing this will come in handy. Did you hear anything with the unsubs?"

"No, I was too focused. The sheriff was only worried about finding them so it wasn't him."

"You two keep talking," Morgan mumbled. "Alright. I'm up again. We know that it's a pack preying on other packs."

"I also think Angel might have been right. Six unsubs." JJ was awake again too and Hotch felt guilty he woke her up. Angel wondered how long he had loved her.

"So, six unsubs who are close and sadistic."

JJ coughed and Angel wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close, rubbing her arms. "Young. The victims are all in their mid twenties, the unsubs probably are too."

"Then we come to town and they can't resist."

*

 _"_ _One day has pa-ast. And one is down, five to go. Congratulations, agents. You've lasted longer than anyone so far, but you are still weak. And we are strong."_

The intercom clicked off and everyone looked at each other, the message waking everyone.

"We need to get moving," Morgan said. "Find the others."

"What did he mean, one is down?" JJ asked. Angel was hearing Hotch's mind, thinking about how the man had worded the message. Congratulations, agents. Not 'and doctor'. If someone was hurt, it was Spencer. But- the unsub could have been just trying to throw them off track by making them think one of their own was dead.

 _I hope it's the latter,_ she thought, pushing it toward his mind. He made eye contact and nodded.

Angel grabbed the blankets and laid them out in a flat stack to put the food and water in the middle. "We should take what we can. We might need it."

"Right," Morgan said, "but we need to find a different way than to just carry the blanket around like a hobo."

Hotch knelt down and undid it, piling two of the blankets, sorting the items and the torn blanket for injuries, and rolling it a bit like a burrito. "Alright. Who's going to carry it?"

"I will," Morgan said. Hotch lifted the new roll and held it up against Morgan's back.

 _Grab the last blanket and wrap it around the pack. We'll tie it around the front and it should stay in place._ Angel nodded and did as he asked, the two backing away to look. Perfect.

"We need to go find the others," JJ said, absently rubbing her stomach. She was eight and a half months.

"At least now we know for sure that Emily was left behind." Angel commented as Morgan opened the door.

There was the body of a dead dog just outside the door. Morgan had done that and now looking at it, he was disgusted with himself. They came out to a big hallway, with a continuation of the hallway to either side and a door straight ahead of them.

"Okay," Hotch said, taking control of the situation best they could. "Which way did the two of you come from?"

"We came from the right, but we didn't check that door out yet. This was the first."

Hotch moved to open the door ahead of them, waving for the rest of them to move incase something came out.

 _Careful with the knob._ Angel told him.

 _You can't say that out loud?_

 _This is more fun. I've missed it._

He patted the door knob with the back of his hand quickly. It was fine. He opened the door and saw... stairs. These were the stairs to go downstairs. Hotch and everyone else relaxed with a sigh of relief.

"Should we go down?" Morgan asked. "Or do you think maybe they could be up here?"

 _What do you think?_

 _If we get close enough I'll be able to hear their thoughts._

"Let's go down them," she said. "I'll tie Hotch's shirt around the door knob just in case they _are_ up here so they know we went back downstairs, but if they're injured or something then they might still be downstairs."

JJ nodded her agreement and she tied the sleeves around the door knob.

"Be careful about the steps. Some of them are trick stairs."

Morgan went first, then Angel and JJ, with Hotch pulling up the rear. Morgan moved slowly down the steps, testing each with one foot before stepping on it and trying the next. They got to the first landing, JJ tripped- only held from falling by Hotch who grabbed her before she could.

"Are you okay?" Angel asked.

"Just, a bit dizzy. My stomach hurts."

Angel searched JJ's mind and indeed, her stomach was hurting. It would hurt, and then it wouldn't. It had started yesterday. She was going into labor and they needed to get out of here. She pushed this towards Hotch, whose eyes widened in understanding.

"Morgan," she said. He turned, half way down the next flight. "We need to hurry."

"I'm working on it."

"Morgan! She's going into labor."

Morgan ran down the rest of the stairs, no tricks, and then came back to bring them down with him. The contractions were only lasting a few seconds, every twenty minutes or so, but they would get closer and closer together.

"I promise," she said. "We will get out of here."

JJ followed them down the stairs, Hotch staying close to help when she needed it. It was too early. She wasn't due for another three weeks.

At the end of the stairs, there was a door. Angel walked in front to open it to a large foyer-like room/hall that had hallways going straight and to either side with no doors.

"Alright-"

Angel interrupted Morgan. "We are _not_ splitting up and so help me if you even _think_ it."

He looked startled and Hotch suggested they take the left, which had two doors and a dead end otherwise. The first door, was just a room. The floor was tile, the walls look sticky, and there was a dirty window. Angel opened the door and took a few steps in and looked around. Above there were those bar lights, ones that reminded her of the School. She stared up at them and took another step, and the floor fell away. Quickly she tried to grab onto something. Anything. Her hands caught the sharp edges of the floor where a trap door had triggered and she gasped at the pain it caused, stripping the skin on her palms. She screamed out and then there was a hand over her wrist trying to pull her out. Then two.

"We got you," Morgan said as he and Hotch pulled her up. "We got you, button."

"I'm not made of plastic."

"No. You're heavier."

Once back on solid ground, she cradled her hands to her. They were bleeding, dripping, and JJ tried to pull them away from her to look at the damage.

"Let me see it," she said. "You have to let me fix it."

Morgan undid the blanket roll from his back and handed JJ a bottle of water. JJ poured it over her hands and bound them tightly. Twice.

Chapter six:

"What was that?" Morgan asked.

Angel's hands were feeling better. They'd continued on the first floor, luckily able to avoid any other dangers. She gathered that the victims didn't usually survive this long and therefore they didn't plan more than they thought would be affective. It was affective, she supposed, since it was why they'd been brought here- but very lucky for her team. Hopefully.

The sound that Morgan referred to and that caught everyone's attention was a soft scraping sound and a bit of a groaning. Angel tried to reach out to whoever it could be and almost cried out in happiness. Both- Spencer and Rossi. She grinned and ran towards their direction. Turning the corner, she could see them and Spencer was hurt. Of course Spencer was hurt, the man was a danger magnet.

"Spencer?"

"Angel!" He had one arm around Rossi's shoulders and the soft scraping was his foot, which appeared to be broken.

She ran towards him and hugged him hard. He kissed her hair and her face until he reached her lips and hugged her again. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said- muffled into his night shirt, which amusingly had a collar and buttons. She chuckled. "Are these silk?"

"I like how they breathe," he murmured into her hair. He pulled away, keeping her by his side and his arm around her. "How is everyone?"

Morgan clapped his shoulder. "Better seeing your ugly faces, kid. Now all we have to do is get out of here. What happened to you?"

"Fell. And we were attacked by those dogs."

"Did you find a safe room?"

"Nope," Rossi said. "I assume since you're mentioning it, you did?"

Morgan undid his pack and handed them each a water bottle and an MRE. They each drank half of theirs in a large gulp and Spencer caught sight of Angel's hands.

He pulled them gently to him. "What happened to you?" He asked quietly.

"Your girl has a bad luck when it comes to her hands," Hotch told him. "First, she burns them on a doorknob. Then she cuts them on a floor. She saved my life though."

JJ gasped sharply and clutched her stomach. Hotch held her and tried to keep her steady. She squeezed Angel's arm and cried out again. When it ended, Angel had the count of one minute thirteen seconds. They were lasting longer, and getting closer together.

"She's going into labor?" Spencer asked with wide eyes and shaking hands.

Angel nodded. "We have to get her out of here and to a hospital. You guys didn't happen upon an exit did you?"

Rossi rubbed his face. "Yes and no."

Angel saw in his mind what he meant. Yes, they found the exit, but it was designed thirty feet from the ground and there was a ladder on the ground. They had gone almost the entirety of the first floor. It was the only one. Rossi explained he predicament to the others and Hotch was immediately thinking that he could jump down and he said this.

Spencer was quick with his statistic for the occasion. "Anecdotally, pole workmen and tree arborists seem to cite **9 meters, or thirty feet, as the "cutoff" for fatality** in a fall — that is, _most_ who fall from thirty feet or higher die."

 _I have to do it,_ she pushed to Hotch mentally.

 _That's insane, didn't you_ _ **just**_ _hear what Reid said?_

 _I know, but I'm not like the rest of you. It won't hurt me as much and I'll heal faster._

"Show us," Angel said. "I can do it."

"No," Spencer said.

She pulled away and looked up at him. "I can do it, Spencer. Think about it. Hotch is responsible for getting JJ to the hospital safely. Morgan and Rossi making sure they can do it. You to be you. I can do it and we can get out of here and take these sons of bitches down."

He wasn't going to and he was thinking about how he could keep Rossi from doing it when Angel shot an apologetic look to Hotch and nudged the command into Spencer's mind, softly, as to have him accept it as his own. Immediately Hotch understood what she was doing and disapproved vehemently, gritting his teeth and trying to both scream at her and calm himself down at the same time.

"Alright," Spencer said in a spacey voice. "It's just down this hall."

Angel felt conflicted. She hadn't manipulated anyone like, especially someone close to her, in a long time. Everyone exchanged looks at Spencer's strange behavior except for Hotch, who glared at Angel. She ignored it, walking beside Spencer as everyone else followed to a set of double doors. Spencer suddenly blinked a few times and frowned, looking around. Angel went to the double doors.

"This is insane," Morgan said.

"Please, Angel," JJ said. "You're being ridiculous."

Angel drowned them out and opened the doors. It didn't seem that far down, though she trusted Spencer's calculations implicitly, but considering that she'd jumped off of cliffs before and higher- it looked rather mild. Max had once thought to herself how graceful Angel was with _out_ her wings, so Angel wasn't sure she'd be surprised if she didn't find herself injured at all.

She moved to the edge, dropped down to lower herself by holding the ledge and letting go so she had shorter to fall. The movement was so sudden, JJ screamed and the others shouted and tried to grab her. She was sure to keep her legs bent enough and her toes slightly pointed in order to land on the balls of her feet. Jeb had taught them all how to fly and defend and take care of themselves, but he also taught them how to fall properly should the situation call for it. She groaned in pain at the snap she heard. Angel pulled herself up and looked down. Broken leg. Great. It would be healed in a week and she would have to explain that. She picked up the ladder, dragging and hopping on her other foot to set it up, rocking it a bit to make sure it was secure and letting herself sit down.

Spencer was the first to climb down, an awkward feat with his own broken limb. He went over to her and pulled her to him. She was unscathed from the fall aside from her leg. Morgan was down next, picking her up to get her off of her leg. Hotch helped JJ down and once they were all on solid ground, they heard the sirens and JJ cried out with a contraction.

 **A/N: Next will be a bit of a time jump, but not really. Next chapter they'll be home and we meet the Leverage team! For those of you who don't know the show... basically its a team/family of the best- or worst, depending on ho you want to look at it- criminals that help people by conning corporations, mobs, etc. that prey on average, normal people. Very Robin Hood. Love always, Skye.**


	7. Long Story

Chapter seven: Long Story

"Angel," Hotch said once they entered the sixth floor. "A word."

Her heart sunk and she felt like she might throw up, but she followed him to his office, on the way to which he walked with calm and even steps, he closed the door behind her with ease, and he turned to face her with rage pent up in his eyes.

"You forced him." It was a small, somewhat simple statement, but was said with a shaking anger that made her flinch like she hadn't in a long time. She took a breath and averted her eyes in shame. She wasn't sure if she regretted doing it, but she regretted having to. It was the first time she had done something like that in a very long time. Years. It was the first time she had done it to anyone close to her since she was a child before everyone died.

"Yes," she whispered. "I forced him to show us where the exit was because Rossi wasn't going to either and Spencer is as stubborn as a mule when he wants to be."

"That doesn't make it right," he snarled.

"I didn't say it did!" She shouted, her eyes were teary. "Look. I'm sorry. I can't undo it and even then, I don't know what I would do with that chance. It got us out and JJ to a hospital that she needed. Her baby wasn't born in some sick game created by a few psychopathic kids looking for a hobby."

Hotch drove his hand through his hair and sighed, visibly calming down. "I won't pretend to know what it's like for you." He grabbed the sides of her upper arms. "You can do things that are literally blowing my mind just thinking about it. I can't imagine the burden and responsibility that would come with being able to do the things you can do. Flying, hearing and having the ability to influence people's thoughts, that's not counting the other things you can do that I'm not sure I want to know. I just-"

"You don't con your own team," she said, thinking back to her old crew and not the Flock.

A strange look crossed his face and he nodded slowly. "You know, I knew someone who used to say that. Good man. Scary."

It was her turn to frown as a familiar face flashed through his mind and her eyes widened. He knew Eliot. Sort of. He chased Eliot in a random showdown where Eliot actually saved his life. Hotch promised to arrest him the next time he saw him. That could be awkward.

"Right," she said.

"Do-" he interrupted at her facial expression. "Do you know a Darren Franceour?"

Angel scratched the back of her head rather awkwardly. "No. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone by that name."

Not a lie. Technically.

"Look. I fucked up, Hotch. I know that. And at some point, if or when Spencer ever finds out about the truth, I will tell him what I did. And I hope he'll forgive me."

"He will," Hotch whispered roughly. "He loves you. Has since you both held the door for him that first day in that dress."

*

It wasn't odd that Total and Akila weren't anywhere to be seen when she finally entered her house after being away for fourteen days. It seemed a complete nonsecuter when she put her pea coat on the hook and noticed strange dust patterns on the floor. It was nothing that one of the chairs at the small breakfast table, which she could see from the living room, was turned out a bit. What tipped her off, however, was the splash of orange soda on her coffee table and the slight creek behind her that lead to her swinging around with a punch that didn't land and trying to dodge a low kick that did. She groaned and grabbed a lamp from a nearby end table and smashing it over the other persons head as he, she vaguely registered it was a he, tackled her with his head and ran her into the wall before they both fell to the floor.

"Damn it, Angel, a freaking _lamp_?"

Angel breathed heavily, standing up and staggering for a minute. "Yes, Eliot, a lamp. Care to tell me why Aaron Hotchner, my Unit Chief by the way, has a memory of you?"

Her friend straightened. "Hotchner? Good man. He's your Unit Chief? You know, he threatened to arrest me next time I saw him."

"Yes, I-I heard something like that. Eliot, what are you doing here?"

"Is it safe to enter the room?" A familiar voice asked and two forms came out of the kitchen, one with an arm around the other's.

Angel grinned and went forward to hug the latter, the one that spoke. "Parker."

Max and the others died, and afterwards, Angel was sent into the foster system where she met Parker, her best friend. From there, they ran away together and met Archie, who moved to hone them, particularly Parker, to be the perfect thief. They became legendary, travelling the world and leaving a crumbling pattern in their wake until they met Nathan Ford and the future Leverage consulting team.

Next she hugged Hardison, and then finally, Eliot. "What have you guys been up to?"

The smiles dropped from their faces and they each took a breath before Eliot answered. "Nate's missing."

"W-what do you mean, missing? I thought he and Sophie got out of the game. Right before I joined the FBI."

"Which, by the way, you didn't mention you would be working with profilers. _Profilers_ , Angel."

"Did you expect anything else?" She asked, going back to the part where her friend and the man she looked up to as a Jeb surrogate for years was missing. "What happened?"

"Sophie's theater had a showing, she sent out invitations and Nate never showed up after leaving the bar," Eliot told her.

Angel sighed, thinking. "I was on a case. We just got back."

"Yeah, well we need you." Hardison said. "Sophie doesn't know what to do she- she was going to tell everyone after the show she's pregnant. She doesn't know what to do, she doesn't even know who took him and he's been gone for almost a whole day. We were about to call Sterling just to have someone help."

"That might not be a bad idea."

"Yeah, except he won't talk to us. You know that. Which is also why we came. You two were together. He'll listen to you."

They had been together. Then he proposed and she clammed up, not sure that was what she wanted and he left. They hadn't spoken since until her, Sophie, and Nate's last job. The one where she 'died' and she witnessed James throw Nate against the wall by his throat with tears in his eyes because he had still loved her. When he found out she was still alive, he said nothing, though she knew she would have taken him back. She had still loved him. He said nothing, only stared after the van she was in as Sophie drove them away.

"I'll give him a call," she told them as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She hesitated her thumb over his familiar number. She still cared very deeply for him, but now she had Spencer. And she loved him.

She took a deep breath and hit the button, putting the phone up to her ear. It rang and just when she thought he wouldn't answer... he did. _"Jim Sterling."_

"Hello, James."

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other line. _"Angel. You-"_ He cleared his throat. _"How-how have you been?"_

"I've, uh, I've been good."

 _"_ _I heard you joined the FBI and then the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Their cases have never gone so good."_

"You've been keeping tabs on me. And of course your new department at Interpol has done well. I heard that you are on the list to be knighted by Her Majesty. Congratulations."

 _"_ _I couldn't have gotten this far without you. You know that. I, Angel, I've been wanting to call you. I thought maybe we could get together again, I-I never should have left."_

Angel's heart pounded and she blinked back tears. "James, I, I met someone else. I- Nate's missing."

There was a pause, a tense pause, before he replied- rather shakily, _"Oh. I thought... right. Nathan Ford, it always goes back to him, doesn't it?"_

"James, I-"

 _"_ _It's okay. Give me a few hours. I'll be there. Text me your address."_

"Will do," she said quietly and hanging up. Then to the others, "He's coming. He'll be here as soon as he can. Where is Sophie? She needs to be safe."

Eliot, as everyone was feeling a bit awkward after hearing her phone call, answered after another clearing of the throat. "She's in a hotel a few miles away. We came ahead to be sure everything was okay to bring her."

"Yes, I, bring her here. If they took Nate, they might come back for her. Hurry, you and Parker go get her. Hardison, I need your help. You and I need to track his phone records." Eliot nodded, patting Parker's arm for the two of them to leave. "Hey," Angel said before they left. She tossed him a set of keys. "Take my car, you might've had a tail."

"Thanks."

*

The first thing Angel did when Sophie came in was pull her close in an embrace that the other woman broke and pulled back to get a good look at her. "Oh, you look beautiful. Are you taking care of yourself? Sleeping right?"

"Yes, Sophie. Are you? That's important for pregnancy, getting lots of rest."

"So they tell me."

Angel hugged her again. "We'll find Nate, I promise. I-I called James."

" _Sterling?_ "

"Yes, James Sterling, he's coming to help us get Nate back."

Sophie looked hesitant at first and gave everyone else a look, to which Parker interrupted. "He thought she wanted to get back together, but she's dating someone else."

Eliot and Hardison hissed at her at the same time. "Parker!"

But Sophie's brown eyes widened at Angel and she sat the two of them down. "You're dating? I thought you swore that off after Sterling."

"I-I still care about James very deeply, but... I love Spencer. He's sweet and painfully awkward, but it's adorable, and you should hear how intelligent he is. He's... amazing."

"You do realize how awkward this is going to be with him here?" Sophie asked in a low voice and her British accent that always made Angel feel warmer.

"Yeah, I know, but I trust James to be mature about this. He's a good man."

As if speaking his name was a cue, the doorbell rang. Angel stood abruptly from her spot on the couch beside Sophie and smoothed out her dress. She glanced to everyone, who all glanced at her expectantly, and she took the two steps to the door and opened it to see a face she said good bye to over three years ago, with his back to the door and then he turned around in a graceful spin and stared at her in a familiar expression. The same expression he'd had when he got down on one knee. She didn't have the swell in her chest now that she did then though.

"Angel," he breathed. He still loved her as much as he had before and Angel felt guilty for being able to hear his private thoughts.

"Hello, James. It's been a long time."

"Yes," he said. "It has."

She took a deep breath and stepped aside to let him in. He passed by her in a tense air and into her living room. Angel shut the door and tried to explain the situation. "Nate's been missing for almost twenty four hours, and there have been no leads on who could have taken him. Plus, Sophie is out on this one."

"Out?"

"Pregnant."

James Sterling glanced down at Angel's stomach and Angel saw him picture in his mind what their own child could have looked like. She flinched. "Well," he said. "We have to find somewhere for her to stay and someone to stay with her to make sure she's safe. I can call in a few favors and find out maybe who has him and why-"

He was interrupted by another knocking at the door that made Angel's stomach drop. No one should be coming here. No one knew where she lived except her team and the Leverage crew. She looked over at it and James held his hand out to stop her from opening it, going over to it himself. He looked through the door and opened it.

"Spencer!" Angel walked passed James and stepped in front of him. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Angel, I, uh, I know you must be exhausted. I just, I couldn't sleep and I wasn't sure if you could so I thought maybe, I don't know. I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

She was about to turn him away when in his thoughts he was thinking that maybe she and James were... together... when she was supposed to be with him. She couldn't let him think that. "No!" She shouted. Then quieter, after a questioning look from James, "Please. Come in. I was just talking with a few friends of mine."

"Uh, Angel, darling, I'm not sure he-"

"This is James, an old... friend. James, this is Spencer Reid. My boyfriend." James looked like he had been slapped and he looked between the two as she pulled Spencer by the hand to the living room. James grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Could we talk in the kitchen?"

She nodded slowly. "Sure. Um. Spencer.. this is, uh-"

She wasn't sure how to introduce a room full of criminals to a profiling FBI agent. These were the best. Luckily, Sophie took the decision out of her hands. "I'm Sophie Devereaux, Angel's aunt."

"Right," Angel said. They were using names. "And this is Alec Hardison, Eliot Spencer, and uh, Parker. Don't listen to anything she says, she's had too much cereal today and she's addicted to chocolate."

Spencer stood there awkwardly and nodded to each person until Sophie made him sit down with her and Angel and James went into the kitchen. As soon as they were in there, James spun around with a desperate look. "You're dating him?" He asked her wildly. " _Him?_ That scrawny thing?"

"He's a good man, James."

" _So am I!_ I made a mistake leaving when you said no. I should have stayed. I should have waited and asked you to marry me again later when you would have said yes."

"Yes, you should have. But that was years ago, James. I'm with Spencer. I _love_ Spencer."

James nodded. "Right. Let's uh, let's go find Nate then. I have a few Interpol contacts I can call. I just need a few minutes."

He went to leave and she grabbed his arm to stop him. "Hey... thank you."

He nodded and his shoulder bumped Spencer's as Spencer moved in. "So," he said. "You two were, engaged?"

She shook her head. "No. He asked me, but I turned him down."

"Doesn't look like he's over it."

Angel half smiled. "Are you jealous?"

"A bit. He's got an accent."

She took a few steps closer to put her arms on his shoulders and kissed him on the lips. He pulled her closer, unsure of himself, and laid his hands on her waist and kissed her deeply back. "Don't be," she said when she pulled away. "You have nothing to be jealous of. I mean.. you have a higher IQ."

He kissed her nose and they went back into the living room as James came back inside from making his calls. He saw their interlocked hands and looked away. "Right. Maybe it's time for Dr. Reid to leave."

Angel bit her lip. "Or..."

"Angel, no." It was Eliot, not James, who said this. "He's a fed."

"So am I," she pointed out.

"But you were one of us first," Parker said.

Spencer was confused at this moment, not understanding what everyone was talking about. Eliot, Parker, and Hardison were mentally telling her how bad of an idea it was. Sophie thought it was a good idea. James, who was the only one aside from Spencer who didn't know her secret, was thinking about Nate being held by Humphrey Dumont. If she'd been drinking something- she would have spit it out.

 _HUMPHREY DUMONT?_ She thought it loud, aimed at her Leverage team and they each reacted. Eliot tensed up, Sophie let out a sharp gasp, Hardison really did spit out his orange soda, and Parker asked daftly, "Who's Humprey Dumont?"

James' head whipped to her. "How did you know that?"

"Just a, a thought."

"Right," he looked back to Angel. "He needs to leave. Now."

"No," she said. "I-I think he could help."

Spencer glanced at everyone. "I want to help. What's going on?"

James came almost nose to nose with Angel. "Angel, do you really think he can handle your past? He's a federal agent."

"So am I and you're Interpol. I trust him."

"Oh," he nodded very reasonably and Angel groaned. She knew what this meant as he turned to Spencer. "Right. Did she introduce you to Sophie Devereaux? She's the best grifter out there and an art thief."

"Ex," the woman in question said under her breath. " _Ex_ -art thief. Why does no one say that?"

"Or Alec Hardison?" James said. "He cracked the Pentagon servers at the age of twelve. Eliot Spencer, wanted in five countries including Myanmar which has a half a million bounty on his head. That sort of thing happens when you kill their president. Parker, best thief in the world wanted in nine countries, particularly Brazil and Yemen. And don't even get me started on our lovely Angel here."

Spencer's mind was running too fast for her to follow, which was actually a relief and at the same time a terror. She felt blind almost. "Wh-what? I don't understand."

James looked to her. "And I thought he was supposed to be intelligent."

"James, stop it." Angel turned to Spencer. "Yes. I was an art thief for a while, but I got out of it and we were helping people. People who had no where else to go and no other options. We exposed bad people for who they were."

"That string of corrupt CEO's that were embezzling, unleashing a harmful product, etc," James said. "That was them."

Spencer was trying to piece it together. "You, you-"

Angel kissed him and James made a strange noise. "Look. I'm still me. Did Parker and I steal the Hope diamond? Yes. Technically. But we also saved a group of orphans from an illegal Russian arms dealer with the promise of ice cream. We-we're like Robin Hood."

"You also lead to the collective murders of Victor Dubenich and Jack Latimer!"

"Yeah, okay," Eliot interrupted. "Dubenich tried to kill us."

"Worse," Parker grumbled, "he didn't pay us."

Eliot groaned and echoed with James. "How is that worse?"

She sniffed just as she had when they met in that warehouse that Dubenich had wired to explode. "I take that personally."

"Plus," Angel pointed out. "It was written off as a mutual suicide. They killed each other, we just gave them the means."

Spencer backed away with his hands up. "What is going on?"

"Spencer, I love you. Please, just, don't freak out."

"Did you ever kill anyone."

"No."

"No."

"No."

"No."

"Yes."

Everyone glared at Eliot. "Wait," Spencer said. "You aren't stealing anything here, are you?"

"We don't do that any more," she told him. " We help people. Our friend, Sophie's husband, is missing and kidnapped by a murderous as con turned CEO turned leader of the French mob."

"H-how can I help?"

James scoffed and Angel smiled, hugging him tight and he buried his face in her hair. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too."

James cleared his throat. "Could we get back on point? Someone needs to stay with Sophie. She won't be able to come. Or, let her come but she'll stay out of the way. Dr. Reid can stay with her, you know, keep her safe. What can we get on Dumont?"

Hardison pulled a laptop out of his backpack and Angel brought one out of her room, setting it up for him to use as he connected it to project on her TV. Everyone took a seat, leaving Angel perched on Spencer's lap and James glaring from the armchair he sat in. Hardison's fingers clacked over the keys quickly, reminding both Spencer and Angel of Garcia, and pulling things up.

"Alright, it looks like Nate had his eye on him before you all left the team and he is one bad dude. His company is a front for a medical ring where he steals medicine and medical supplies to sell to other people. He's the one that set up that heart thing in Cincinnati if you remember."

"Please," Angel said, "don't tell me he found that guy a new one."

A few clicks and, "Yeah, uh, I can't tell you that."

"What heart thing?" Both Spencer and James asked.

Eliot explained, "We were getting back from Monserrat-"

"Where I didn't get to see the emerald."

"IT WASN'T AN EMERALD!" She said that everytime and they couldn't get her to understand that it wasn't a real emerald, but the emerald of the Carribbean.

Eliot shook his head at her. "Anyway, someone had kidnapped a transplant nurse's daughter to force her to give up the heart she carried in a dead drop. We helped her get it back to the fifteen year old boy it was meant for in the time restraint we had."

Spencer blinked a few times and looked at Angel. "That's... really good. Just on a whim? No prep?"

Angel smiled and turned to Hardison. "Where could he be hiding Nate?"

"I'm not sure. He's a powerful guy, he could be hiding him anywhere."

"No," Eliot said. "He'd want someone as smart as Nate close by and under very heavy security."

"Like his building basement?" Hardison asked.

Angel nodded. "It's what James did on our last job."

James agreed. "It will be near the basement atleast, but if he knew you were coming for him then it will be away from any elevators or wherever you could easily access him. Who all does he have his people looking for?"

With a few more clicks of the keypad and clacks of the keyboard, three faces were pulled up; Sophie, Eliot, and Parker. "Just most of us. Luckily he doesn't have Angel, but- no. No, no, no." Hardison leaned back and ran a hand over his face. "He has a Steranko."

Everyone groaned and James looked confused. "So did the Highpoint Tower."

"You guys broke into the Highpoint Tower?" Spencer asked.

Angel stood up. "Guys, we can do this. We've beaten two Steranko systems before. Is it a pain in the ass? Yes. Is something almost certainly going to go wrong? Absolutely. But it's Nate. He would, and _has_ done it for us."

"You're the ones that broke into Wakefield?" James asked.

"It's a bit of a long story."

 **A/N: I'm trying to be sure I explain everything as I go along, but this story, and I apologize deeply for it, is about to get crowded. Like, I'm cramming a lot into just because I like where the story line is going with it and so... we have added the Leverage crew. It's a TV show and it is on Netflix and I urge you all to go watch it.**

 **My sunburn is a lot better. I no longer look like something out of a horror film, but I left my charger at my mom's and dont have the gas to get it at the moment which leaves my phone with a REALLY sucky charger that keeps falling out. Meh.**

 **I may or may not tell Spencer about Angel soon, I was originally going to tell him and Emily when they get stuck in that compound and she would pretend to be an angel or something. I was really excited and then I was like.. HEY! Let's add a bunch of shit that doesn't really make sense because it's really cool. Tell me what you think. Love always, Skye.**


	8. That happened

Chapter eight: Well, that happened.

Angel walked into the Dumont building in New York City with her head held high, a smirk on her face, and a really short skirt that she borrowed from Sophie. Beside her was Hardison and they were running something similiar to the first time they encountered a Steranko. She walked up to the building manager, who was a pencil pusher who maybe only saw Dumont once from afar, and stopped with a smile. He was a young man, promoted to where he is because he's inexperienced and won't understand what's really going on. He's a front.

He held his hand out to shake. "Walter Kerley, Building Manager."

Angel smiled stiffly at him, but made no move to shake his hand. "Maxine Batchelder, I'm with the CDC... charmed, I'm sure." Her accent was British and cold. She turned to Hardison with an imperious tone. "I thought you were sure to email ahead of time that I do not shake. Must I fire you and find another assistant who knows how to follow orders?"

"Is that Angel?" She heard Spencer ask over comms. "That's amazing."

She almost smiled and Kerley was quick to interject. "No! My deepest apologies, Miss Batchelder. I completely forgot about that email. Truly."

Compassionate, they could use that. She sniffed derisively, "I suppose I could forgive it this once. We are here to do a full inspection of the facilities and my assistant-"

"Associate," Hardison interjected meekly.

She glared at him for speaking. "Mr. Mathew Grant will be looking through your finances to be sure you've cut no corners." Angel took a threatening step towards Kerley. "Rest assured, Mr. Kaley-"

"Kerley," he corrected with a pale face.

" _If_ he finds anything even remotely suspicious, I will shut down this building faster than you can protest the allegations and this time in six months, you'll be running a taco stand. Do I make myself clear?"

Eliot laughed over comms and Sophie's voice came on, "I missed this. She's gotten so much better, she's perfect."

"Yeah," Parker added, "and she's never stabbed anyone with a fork."

Angel followed Kerley to the elevators where she watched and listened to the numbers he pressed on the keypad. Four, seven, eight, five, one. She'd need his badge, but at least five other badges to get down to the basement, discarding each one after each access point and picking up new ones along the way. Hardison needed a computer to find where the concentration of security was and then Parker and Eliot would provide a distraction for her to get down there. James could keep them off her back by being the security company.

"Right this way," he told her, "Aimee here will get Mr. Grant everything he needs and I can show you around."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kaley. Did I ask for a shadow?"

"Kerley," he corrected as Spencer did.

Sophie explained, "It makes him less confidant and more suseptible to her influence as his superior. Also, it's just really fun."

"I'm really sorry, Miss Batchelder, but I cannot authorize you to go off by yourself. Security, you understand."

He moved to talk to someone for a moment, answer a question, and Angel sighed to herself. "Guys," she said over comms, "I need to get rid of Kerley. Little help?"

"I got you," Eliot responded, apparently already out of Lucille and heading into the lobby doors.

Not two minutes later, "Sir, we have a situation in the lobby." The woman, Aimee after taking Hardison to an office, was holding a tablet with video feed to the lobby where Eliot was standing in the middle of a lot of bodies of security guards. "He's one of them," she whispered to him, her eyes dodging to Angel.

His eyes widened and he looked to her. "P-please, Miss Batchelder. I apologize-"

"This is _most_ unprofessional," she told him in a scandalized tone. "I'll have to report this."

"Please, I just. You go on and do whatever you need to do, I need to go deal with this."

She sniffed and turned on her heel, walking away with a sigh of relief. "Nice job, Eliot. James, it's your turn. How are we looking, Hardison?"

"I'm fighting to stay ahead of the system, but I see a single elevator that moves to the basement floor and from the cameras it looks like that's the only way to get down there and you have to have a code to access it. Once you get down there, it's heavily guarded, but I think that's where Nate is. Sophie, Spencer, I'm sending the feed to Lucille's servers."

"I'm on it." Angel pulled her hair back and pulled a wig from her bag, turning a corner and slipping an ID from an unsuspecting employee- then moving through the first door towards the right elevator. "Hardison, what's the code? Wait, is it 83749?"

"Yes, it is. Unh! Miss this. Who's mind you get that from this time?"

"It was in the back of Kerley's when he punched in the first one bringing us up here. Think you can get everyone out of the building?"

The fire alarm sounded and Angel grinned, running towards the elevator and punching the key to go down. This elevator only went to the basement. Once in, she shielded her face from the camera and punched in the code, feeling the movement start.

"Be sure to hold yourself to the roof so they don't see you and drop on them when they enter."

"I remember, Parker," she said as she lifted herself up and dropped the ID she had used.

The doors opened. She waited and two armed guards entered the elevator to check out the dropped ID. Angel dropped onto them and once they were out, she dragged them to the corner of the hallway. "I'm in, where do I go?"

"We're blown," Hardison said. "Steranko found me, I'm trying to stay away from it, but, Angel, we gotta come up with some other way."

"Not a chance, this is our only chance to get Nate. We don't know if they're going to move him or something. Direct me."

"They have guns and Steranko knows there's an intruder. You're going to get caught."

"Hardison, this is already so much easier than the other two times, yes? Left or right?"

There was a sigh, "Take a left."

*

Angel took two lefts, down a flight of stairs and took a right- right to three guards. She laughed weakly, "Hey, guys, how about that game last night, eh?" The one on the left, the leader, was about to shoot her. "Wait!" She said. "Before you shoot me, maybe you should start with my friend," she motioned to behind him, where Eliot actually was. He did his thing, and Angel let him. She really _had_ missed this.

"How did you get down here?"

"Airducts. Parker's been teaching me."

Angel grinned. "I've missed this."

"You should come back," Parker said over comms. "We all miss you."

Spencer cleared his throat and she smiled. "Thanks, guys, but I'm happy stealing Morgan's coffee in the morning and watching Mystery Science Theater with Spence."

The door, was just a door. Angel supposed that Dumont figured no one could get to Nate down here with the Steranko, the guards. It's been too easy. She frowned as she opened the door and took a step, hearing a click. She gave a soft gasp and looked down. Floor tiles weren't supposed to click. Nate was there, eyes wide, tied to the chair with rope and duct tape, mouth covered with tape, and looking all sorts of beat up.

"Angel," Eliot said evenly, taking a step towards her from the hallway. "Don't. Move."

She nodded carefully. "What's going on?" James whispered over comms. "What's happened?"

Angel moistened her lips and took a breath. "It's alright. Just a floor trigger."

"F-floor trigger?" Hardison asked with a high pitch to his voice. "Like D.C. floor trigger?"

She was shaking and her breath coming out in shaky pants. "Yes. Exactly like D.C. except I don't have a Parker."

"You got me," Eliot said in his low voice. "I'm right here."

"What happened in D.C.?" She heard Sophie ask.

Angel could imagine Parker mimicing an explosion. "Hardison stepped on a floor trigger connected to a bomb that I then had to unwire."

"What?!" Spencer asked. "Angel?!"

"I'm fine, Spencer," she lied. "This is kind of what we do and I promise that I will explain everything later."

Eliot paced for a minute and then stopped. "Okay. Here's what we're going to do. I see it and I think I can trick it into thinking it has already gone off. Angel, don't move. I'm going to reach for it."

"Don't touch the floor," she said, still speaking in terrified, breathy tones. "Spencer?"

"Yeah."

She smiled. "I love you."

Hardison interrupted her. "Don't do that. You can't tell me that with all of your powers you have nothing you can do."

Eliot reached under her to the bomb, careful as he could not to touch anything else, and groaned. "I can't reach it. We have to think of something else before someone comes down here."

Angel locked eyes with Nate and he was telling her about being ambushed in the bar- the scenes playing through his mind. She moistened her lips again, why was her mouth so dry?- and nodded to herself. "Eliot," she said, "I need you to step over the tiles around me and get to Nate. Get him out of here."

"We're not leaving you," Sophie said over the comms. "You are all getting out of this together."

"It's just our luck, isn't it?" She said, ignoring Sophie and addressing Spencer. "We just got home from a case and now this is what gets me. I feel insulted. I escaped psychotic scientists, wolf mutants, more psychotic scientists, countless people trying to kill me over the years, and this is what take me out."

"What are you talking about?" Spencer asked over comms.

 _Uh, Angel? Is this the right time for this?_ Eliot asked her.

She nodded at him and pushed her own message towards him. _You know how this is about to go down. I need you to get Nate and get out. I have a plan, but I need you two out in case it doesn't work. Take care of Spencer for me._

He nodded too, carefully moving around the bomb.

"I love you," Angel whispered, just as Eliot grabbed her hand and pulled her as hard as he could towards him and behind the bomb as the everything exploded.

*

"ANGEL?" Spencer shouted into the comms and threw the door of Lucille open, trying to get out as the man the others called Sterling pushed him back into the van with tears in his eyes.

"We have to go," his voice broke. "We have to go."

Hardison came running out of the building at that moment. Sophie looked sick with tears streaming down her face. Parker looked like she was in shock. Like she wasn't sure how ot react. Then there came a crackling over the comms. A coughing.

"Eliot? Are you okay?" It was Angel's voice, groggy and quiet at just barely above a whisper. There was a hiss of pain.

"Angel?" James asked, his finger to his ear. "Love?"

Spencer felt a cut of jealousy at the term of endearment, but it was overwhelmed by the relief of hearing her voice. It didn't seem like she could hear them, but they could hear her. That was enough.

"Angel, where's Nate?"

"He's right here. Nate, are you okay?"

They couldn't hear the answer, but they could hear that there _was_ in fact an answer. Then Eliot spoke again. "We have to get back to the others. Can you walk?"

There was a groan. "My leg's rebroken. I'll need a few minutes and then yes. I can."

Spencer was so confused, and James looked confused as well, but Sophie and the others seemed to know what she meant. There was a sharp scream on the comms that made everyone jump.

"My wing! Stop, stop, stop!"

Her wing? "I'm sorry. Is it okay? Do you need a minute?"

"No, I'm good. Let's go, I'll have Sophie bandage it later."

Spencer felt so confused. He had heard so many strange things. The list of crimes she had commited before coming to the FBI, the people she helped in doing so and the people she didn't, the people she did all of this with. He could have handled that after some more explanations if that was all there was, but now he was getting the feeling it wasn't. There was something else, something he felt like he was going to have a much harder time getting over.

"Y-your wing is bleeding." That was Nate, they could hear him over the comms so he had to be closer to one of them. "Let's get you back to the van."

When the door to the van opened again to show the three of them, Spencer saw what they were talking about and his eyes widened at the sight of the 8 feet span wings that would otherwise bea pure white if not for the streaks of blood through the down. The only thing that maybe made him feel a bit better was the fact that Sterling seemed to be at least as surprised and a million times more hurt.

She was leaning with an arm around Eliot and another man that had to be Nate. "Guys," Eliot said, "help her up."

Spencer reached forward and grabbed her, pulling her up into the back with him. She fell against him and moaned in pain. He wrapped his arms around her, being careful of her... wings. Angel looked up at him and he kissed her. She smiled weakly.

"So, I have wings."

 **A/N: AAAHHH! So, I know I haven't updated in a while. But, here's an update in more than one way. First of all, I am sort of getting back into Leverage as evidenced by me adding a chapter to Fated and Feathered. Also, I created another account on here for a reason I'm not really sure of, but I kind of like the stories I'm writing for that one more. BriarRoseRed for those interested in checking it out. And... I'm moving across country again. I swear I'm going to get old making the trip from Carolina to Seattle. Honestly. My friends and I reconnected lately as well. Life is getting more wild. Hope you guys like the update. Love always, Skye.**


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